PREFACEThe study of the development of an international organization set vp to advance the cause of PEACE is always something which is inspiring. The reasons behind the establishment of such an organization may be both simple and complex. On the one hand, it may be inspired by the humanitarians who feel that the more advanced and civilised people should shoulder the responsibility of helping their more primitive and so less fortunate neighbours. On the other handy the inspiration may be provided by the desire to gain security for the future. It is also possible to find both the spirit of human!tarlanism and fear to work hand in hand to produce something constructive.The thesis presented here is that the South Pacific Commission was at the beginning inspired by a combination of both idealism and security considerations, but as the direction of the post-war international politics became more apparent, the security calculation gained the upper hand.This thesis does not claim to be an expert explanation of the affairs of the Commission, although in it a study has been made of that organization from the materials available to the general public. Its scope is greatly limited by the fact that a lot of the confidential documents relating to the Commission, now being kept at the archive in Canberra were not accessible, as the archivist has been strictly instructed not to let any research worker to work on secret documents which are less than fifty years old; thus students still have to wait for another forty-eight years before they may say with confidence that they know the complete history of the Commission even for the period 1947-1957, when the Commission had to overcome many difficulties, and finally to see a major transformation in its organization and even in the purposes for which it was set up.There are five chapters in this volume. The first attempts to explain the various factors influencing the policies of the various colonial powers interested in the South Pacific region. In the second chapter, the steps leading to the formation of the Commission are briefly given, end then follow the natures of the South Pacific Commission as an international organization. The Secretariat organization and the auxiliary bodies of the Commission are dealt with in the third and fourth chapters respectively! and the final chapter is an attempt to speculate on the future of the South Pacific Commission as a welfare organization in the South Seas.Acknowledgement is made to many people who were interviewed. Among them were Dr. H.V. Evatt, who, as the then Australian Minister for External Affairs, took the most important part in the formation of the South Pacific Commission; Dr. J.W, Burton, who was a member of the Australian delegation to the South Seas Commission Conference; Professor K.O. Shatwell, Professor of Law and Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney, who for a while had represented Australia as a Commissioner, Professor S.C. Harland, of Manchester University, who had been a Technical Adviser to the Research Council; Dr. Cap ell, who had worked in the Research Council linguistic projects; Mr. W.W. Bryan, a Senior Agronomist in the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, who had undertaken some project for the Research Council; and Professor J.W. Davidson and Mr. H.E. Maule of the Australian National University. ..............................