What Future for the Islands of the Pacific?

By Felix M. Keesing,
Professor, Stanford University

Contents

At Our Western Doors

From Honolulu to Port Moresby

• Island Peoples
• A Political Patchwork

Why Are the Powers Interested?

• Rivalries for Sea Lanes and Ports
• The United States Gains Territories
• A More Active Policy
• A War Footing
• “Remember Pearl Harbor”
• Military Governments Take Charge

What Should Be Done ?

• What Are Other Nations Thinking?

The Island Populations

• Polynesia
• Melanesia
• Micronesia
• Vigorous Peoples
• White Settlers
• Peoples from Asia
• New Island Stocks
• Political Patchwork

Political Control

• The American Stake
• The Former Japanese Islands
• The British Islands
• Other National Stakes

How Are the Islands Governed?

• “Indirect Rule”
• How Much Self-Government Is There?
• Do the Non-Natives Have a Say?
• Are There “Nationalist” Movements?

How Do the Natives Make a Living?

• Commerce and Depression
• Are the Islands Rich in Minerals?
• What Are the Economic Prospects?

At the Postwar Conference Tables

• What Are Some Possible Lines of Policy?
• Five Zones
• Tasks To Be Done

To the Leader

• Questions for Discussion

Suggestions for further Reading