Editorial Note

The line “From our own correspondent,” above the original article, was placed there in error. The article was supplied by a Fiji resident who evidently felt keenly about the matter. We had no reason to doubt his good faith. In the next mail, the same statement in different words, was supplied by another person, a resident of the Rewa district.

About October 20, we received a letter dated October 10, from Captain M. Godley, private secretary to the Governor, stating the “facts of the matter.” The facts are substantially as given in His Excellency’s address. Mr. Godley says: “The Rewa magistrate sent an invitation to Mr. K.

B. Singh, which was accepted. There

was no question of a claim or request made by Mr. Singh, or of a refusal by the magistrate, and there was no appeal or reference to the Governor.”

Nothing could be more definite or explicit than that. His Excellency is equally definite; and this journal, of course, accepts the official statement without question or equivocation. It is only fair to say, however, that there has been serious misunderstanding some where; because, in the mail which brings the report of His Excellency’s speech (to hand October 29) there are two letters, one from each of the gentlemen referred

to —and each of them refers to the official denial, and each reaffirmed the truth of the original article. We have suggested to each of them that, in the circumstances as they have developed, only two courses are open to them. They must either make their charge openly in Fiji; or re frain from subtle propaganda designed to stir up racial antagonism.

Fiji people should realise that Sir Murchison Fletcher, in connection with Indian affairs, has upon his hands one of the most awkward little problems in the Empire; and that anything he does has a repercussion far beyond Fiji. Be fore they begin to shoot criticism at the Governor, and charge him with “pro- Indianism,” let them take a look at the constitutional position in India, and the expression at present on the faces of cer tain gentlemen in Whitehall whenever they discuss India; let them spend a quiet hour in a reference library, and read up the history of Indian settlement in Natal and East Africa; and then maybe they will begin to understand the delicacy of the Governor’s position. The Fiji-Indian problem is not one of the Governor’s mak ing; but he has to deal with it —and not as a Fiji matter, but as a thing affecting inter-imperial relations.

One sympathises wholeheartedly with the Europeans in Fiji. When the Indians enter local politics in a British Dominion

—as they do inevitably as soon as they are allowed to settle down and attain prosperity—they become a nuisance and a menace; and they can appeal very em barrassingly to John Bull’s love of justice and fairplay. But that is no reason why the Europeans should jump upon their Governor. Maybe—who can guess what is in the mind of a Governor! —he feels just as they do about it. But he carries the weight of an Imperial responsibility, of which the man-in-the-street knows nothing. If the latter gentleman wants to kick someone, let him give his atten tion to the misguided interests which promoted Indian settlement in Fiji.