sentences:  ASOPA operated under the Papua and New Guinea Act 1949 and was a responsibility of the Federal Minister for External Territories until 1 December 1973.In 1946, John Kerr (later Sir John Kerr QC, Governor-General of Australia) was demobilised from the Australian Army with the rank of colonel and appointed the first Principal of ASOPA.The following year he also became the first Organising Secretary of the South Pacific Commission.