Indian Problem In Fiji

Claim for “Freedom and Privileges Conferred by Union Jack”

Letter to the Editor.

I WAS interested in reading the article under the above heading in your June number. I encroach upon your kind indul gence for a space to express my views on the question.

Now-a-days much trash is passed off under the pretence of protecting native interests, so called. As there appears to be a lot of misunderstanding on this ques tion, I take the liberty of quoting the Native Chief. Ratu J. L. V, Sukuna, Native Nominated Member of the Fiji Legislative Council. Speaking in the Council on the 27th October, 1933, he said, inter alia: — “I should like to say publicly that, so far as Fijians are concerned, we think we are very well treated, and for the next two or three or four generations we look to Euro

pean leadership and expect the Europeans to lead' us, until such times as we are able to guide ourselves.” This, coming from one of the High Chiefs, ought to serve as an eye-opener to those who say that the natives are not properly treated and that the Government has betrayed their in terests.

The Fiji Government protects native rights in every way and does its utmost to improve their well-being in every man ner possible. Yet some fanatical cranks continue to misrepresent matters.

You are evidently under a misappre hension when you say that “The crime was committed when permanent Indian settlement was permitted in Fiji.” For the late Lord Salisbury, the then Secretary of State for India, in a despatch dated 24th March, 1875, made it quite clear that the object he contemplated was permanent colonisation, and added that “above all things the Colonial laws and their ad ministration will be such that the Indian settlers will be, in all respects, free men with privileges no whit inferior to those of any other class of His Majesty’s subjects resident in the Colonies.”

Now, Mr. Editor, what more is required to prove that the Indians were brought out to this Colony with a view to per manently colonising Fiji and thus have their permanent place in the Colony.

It is no doubt now a crime to humiliate the Indians in Fiji, who (declared Ratu Sukuna in the Legislative Council the other day) “have shown us the way and are great assets to the Colony.”

We Indians agree that the interests of the natives are paramount and that they must be maintained. We have no desire to push out the indigenous Fijians. We do not wish to deprive them of their rights and liberties, or any other race, but when such arguments to raise false alarm are advanced, we have to point out their absur dity. Where, in the history of any Colony, have the Indians pushed out either the indigehous population or the European im migrant? In West Indies and South American Colonies, Indians were taken over for the development of those coun tries long before they were brought out to Fiji. Have the Indians in any one of those colonies, being more in number than they are in Fiji, taken administrative possession or pushed out natives or Euro

peans?

As regards our demand for equality of political treatment with the Europeans, I may say that our demand is consistent with the declared policy of H.M. Govern ment, as contained in the White Paper of June, 1930. Moreover, in 1920 a deputation representing the Fiji Government and the European planters went to India to beg more Indians to come to Fiji and that the Fiji Government, after full discussion with the European elected members of the Fiji Legislative Council and the Council of the European Planters, expressed their wil lingness to guarantee that the position of the Indians in Fiji would, in all respects, be equal to all other subjects of His Majesty resident in Fiji. Then, by virtue of our being British subjects, we are fully entitled to the freedom and privileges that the Union Jack confers.

Let me quote here what I wrote in my letters that appeared in your May number.

I wrote inter alia:— “The European and Indian subjects of His Majesty King George in Fiji live in mutual concord and harmony, maintaining, not merely the material glory of an Em pire more glorious than history has ever recorded, but sustaining its moral and spiritual basis in the interests of the great Britannic Commonwealth of Nations.”

Believe me, Mr. Editor, when I say that there is no friction between the European

and Indian in Fiji. The majority of Euro pean men and women are nice liberty-lov ing people, full of the milk of human kind ness for their fellow Indian subjects. But, alas! there are at the same time some fanatical cranks who write to the papers abroad to discredit us.

I am, etc..

J. A. Kirpal.

Suva, Fiji. 5/7/’34.