Canberra, 18 April 1966
Reported dissatisfaction with leadership of Mr. John Guise for P &NG House of Assembly
In Sydney on Wednesday night at the reception for Members of the P&NG House of Assembly, [talked to a number of the visiting Members about the position of Leader of the elected Members in the House.
2. Matthias Toliman, the Deputy Leader of the elected Members2 told me that he had been approached, on several occasions recently, to accept the leadership. He said he had refused because he felt he was not experienced enough to effectively lead the elected Members although there was great dissatisfaction with Guise as Leader.
3. Toliman said that Guise had been elected because indigenous Members felt that he had a wealth of administrative knowledge which he could pass on to the others. However, Toliman said that Guise had refused to pass on his knowledge to other Members and in Toliman’s own words has been ‘very arrogant and rude and impatient of Members’. Toliman said that he did not think that Guise would remain long as Leader.
4. His comments were supported by Dirona Abe, Tei Abal and Nicholas Brokam who were critical of Guise.
5. I suggested to Toliman that if he was called on to lead, he should seriously consider accepting the leadership because it would be his duty to give effective leadership to the elected Members. Toliman made no direct comment on this, but the other Members mentioned, agreed and said if Guise were to be replaced, it would have to be by a man acceptable to all sections of the elected Members.
6. Critical references were made to Guise’s single handed attempts to produce a name, a flag and a national anthem for Papua and New Guinea.3
7. Tei Abal made an interesting comment that the Highlands were suspicious of Guise because they felt he was trying to push them, before they were ready, into independence.
8. For your information.4
[NAA: A452, 1966/4576]
1 M.G. O’Brien, position unidentified, DOT.
2 Also MHA for Rabaul open electorate and Under-Secretary, Administrator’s Department.
3 See editorial note ‘Papua and New Guinea’s constitution and ultimate status: debate in Port Moresby and Canberra’.
4 Guise was deposed as leader of the elected members at a meeting of 9 June 1966. He commented during the meeting that he was ‘happy to resign to give more time for … constitutional concerns’ (minute, Swift to Payne and R.K.H. Rose (OIC, Information Section, DOT), 9 June 1966, NAA: A452, 1966/2968, and minute, Ballard to Warwick Smith, 14 June 1966, NAA: A452, 1966/2960).