France Postpones Referendum on New Caledonia Independence

The French government changed course under intense political pressure Thursday and postponed its plan to hold a referendum in July on a form of independence in its troubled South Pacific colony of New Caledonia.

Instead, Premier Laurent Fabius told a national television audience, the referendum will be delayed until no later than the end of 1987. Fabius also announced the formation of a new system of government that will divide the island colony, with its racial differences, into four regions. Elections for new regional councils were scheduled for August.

More than 20 people have been killed in racial clashes in New Caledonia since last November.

Fabius’ announcement amounted to a significant change, at least in the timing, of the plan announced last January by Edgard Pisani, the government’s special representative in New Caledonia. Pisani had proposed that New Caledonia have sovereignty and a seat in the United Nations while still legally associated with France. He called for a vote on his proposals in July and their implementation, if approved, by January.

Whites Were Opposed

The plan appealed to the more than 60,000 native Melanesians, known locally as Kanaks, but was opposed vehemently by the 30,000 other Asians and more than 50,000 whites in the island colony. The whites and other Asians--with strong support from the opposition parties of France--demanded that New Caledonia remain a colony of France.

Fabius’ announcement seemed to indicate that the referendum will now be postponed until after the March, 1986, parliamentary elections in France and that the move will give the Kanaks a chance to demonstrate their ability at some form of self-government.

Fabius said that New Caledonia will be divided into four administrative regions, each with an elected regional council. The four councils, under the new plan, will then make up a congress or territorial assembly for the whole colony.

Such an arrangement will probably dilute the voting power of the whites, since most of them live in the capital city of Noumea.