King of the Cocos

The Cocos Islands, a glistening coral archipelago, lie midway between Australia and Ceylon in the Indian Ocean. The main island, with a population of 500, has been ruled more or less benevolently like a feudal fiefdom for the past 145 years by descendants of a Scottish sea captain named John Clunies-Ross. He settled in the coconut-growing islands in 1827, imported Malay workers from Java to harvest the copra for export, and in 1886 his grandson obtained a grant in perpetuity to the islands from Queen Victoria.

Now the Cocos Islands have posed a troubling question for Australia: whether or not to impose the benefits --and the ills--of civilization on the islanders. Britain ceded sovereignty over the islands to Australia in 1955, and Canberra simply assumed that the Malays were content with Clunies-Ross rule. No one knew for sure, of course; the present ruler, John Clunies-Ross, a fifth-generation descendant of the islands' original settler, forbade the Australian administrator to set foot on Home Island, which he considers his private domain. Canberra's comfortable ignorance was jolted three years ago when a group of Malay headmen on Christmas Island, where the overpopulation from the Cocos was resettled after World War II, told Australian officials that their friends and relatives in the Cocos were like "birds in a cage." The Cocos Islanders had written letters saying that they were not allowed to leave the islands even to visit relatives.

The Australian government sent an investigator to the Cocos, but his report was kept secret until last month, when it suddenly surfaced as a political issue. The report compares the Malay workers to slaves of a benevolent plantation owner in the pre-Civil War U.S. South. "Although they appear happy and contented," the report says, "they seem to be very servile." The Malay workers call Clunies-Ross "Tuan Besar," meaning "Big Master." For their labor, the Malays are paid six Cocos rupees a week (about $2) in plastic tokens redeemable only at Clunies-Ross's own store. Clunies-Ross, 43, is depicted as something of a bizarre character who strides around the island barefoot with a Scottish dagger in his belt.

Reporters who flew to the Cocos Islands found the feudalism real enough. On Saturday mornings, for instance, Clunies-Ross meets with six Malay headmen to dispense whatever justice is called for (the most common sentence is two weeks' work without pay). "We have no need of courts as you know them," he told newsmen. "Crime is hardly a problem. In fact, last year we had two thefts, which took up only 45 minutes of our time."

In addition to his own system of unwritten laws, Clunies-Ross has devised a social welfare program that includes optional retirement with pension at 60, free health care and housing. Most families have two boats, one for fishing and one for leisure. Education is voluntary, but "school days may end abruptly," notes Clunies-Ross. "Anyone who doesn't respond or is lazy gets sacked." Children go to work at 14, usually as apprentices in a trade. Clunies-Ross said that he did not want the Malay children to have an Australian standard of education because it would lead to a brain drain.

To combat the overpopulation that plagued the island in the past, Clunies-Ross provided free birth control pills starting in 1961, and decreed that families be limited to two children. When couples marry they are given a two-bedroom asbestos house. The Clunies-Rosses themselves do not observe such strictures, however; the ruler and his English-born wife Daphne have five children and live in a two-story mansion, cared for by five house girls dressed in Malay costumes with hibiscus blooms in their long black hair.

How do the Malays feel about the arrangement? The only one allowed to speak with reporters was Headman Buyah Bin Amin. "Are we treated like slaves? No, of course not," says Buyah. "We are quite happy here, although a few of the younger ones are not satisfied with what they get."

The Australian government, meanwhile, was not quite sure what to do about the Cocos. As the Melbourne Age observed: "There will undoubtedly be a feeling that perhaps we should leave all this alone: that the last thing a peaceful and happy people deserves is the dubious benefits of our civilization. However the situation is not that simple. The islands cannot be left in the past and their future cannot be planned on the assumption that Clunies-Ross rule will always be benevolent."

Since Australia is responsible under the United Nations charter for the administration of the island, it cannot allow the Malays to continue without the rights of citizenship and the protection of its laws. Last week Minister of External Territories Andrew Peacock visited the Cocos. After two days of negotiations with Clunies-Ross, he achieved an agreement, subject to Canberra's approval, under which Clunies-Ross conceded Australian sovereignty and agreed that the island be ruled by an elected chief executive, presumably himself. Included in the agreement were provisions for Australian teachers, an appeals system for major crimes, and transportation to Singapore and Christmas Island. The currency in which the Malays are paid and their freedom of movement will be subject to further talks.

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