Hawaii’s World

By A.A. Smyser

Thursday, March 12, 1998

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A talk with Australia's
consul general

BEFORE long, Australia's consul general in Hawaii, Colin McDonald, and his wife, Julie, will be flying back to retirement in Canberra.

In nearly 40 years in Australia's diplomatic corps he has shown that you don't have to join any nation's navy to see the world.

He has served in New Delhi, Singapore, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Tokyo, Fiji, South Africa, Egypt and Hawaii. He has climbed through the diplomatic hierarchy from third secretary of an embassy to minister, high commissioner and ambassador.

Being consul general here is a pre-retirement position that he has enjoyed very much because of the collegiality among our 33-member diplomatic corps, made up mostly of 27 local citizens who are honorary consuls for a variety of nations.

International diplomatic representation in Hawaii is quite small, considering that the United Nations has some 195 members. Only Australia, Japan, the Philippines and South Korea have major fully staffed consulates general here.

The Marshalls and the Federated States of Micronesia, now independent but formerly in the U.S. Trust Territory, have modest offices. Guam, the Northern Marianas and American Samoa, all still under the U.S. flag, support the Honolulu-based Pacific Basin Development Council.

Most independent Pacific Island nations have their main Hawaii contacts through the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center. It hosts annual summits.

France closed its Honolulu office last year as part of a worldwide realignment. China and Russia never have set up camp here.

Taiwan has a significant presence with its Coordination Council for North American Affairs offices. They are located in the old Republic of China complex but have been unofficial since the U.S. transferred our diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing.

The Australian consulate general also handles matters here for Great Britain and Canada, but Australia's South Pacific neighbor, New Zealand, chooses to be represented through Los Angeles, perhaps to maintain an entity separate from its bigger neighbor. "Matters" include such things as passports, legal problems, and helping citizens who have been robbed.

Our full-time consulates general here keep in touch with the U.S. Pacific Command at Camp Smith. They are familiar also with the governor's office, the East-West Center and our substantial internationally oriented array of societies and councils, educational institutions, chambers of commerce, the Pacific Forum/ CSIS think tank and the secretariat for the private business grouping known as the Pacific Basin Economic Council.

I asked McDonald for quick insights into areas where he has served.

New Delhi - A leading diplomatic gathering place for Third World countries. It may have 150 embassies today.

Cairo - a center for Middle Eastern and African diplomats, roughly equal to New Delhi in magnitude.

The Netherlands - Very involved in European affairs.

Papua New Guinea - He helped to organize its overseas diplomatic representation when it became independent of Australia.

Fiji - Thanks to trade alliances, the Australian embassy is as key in Fiji as the U.S. embassy is in Tokyo.

Tokyo - The U.S. Embassy's importance outranks some departments of government.

South Africa - When McDonald was there, the embassy was trying to maintain diplomatic friendships while telling white leaders continued apartheid would bring them no fun and no joy.

Singapore and Malaysia - Briefly united under one rule when he was there, then separated to pursue their differing interests.

Honolulu - A wonderfully congenial place. But he thinks we might be devaluing our currency today if we weren't a part of the U.S.