Gilbertese Moved

To Phoenix

Tragedy Marks Completion of Big Migration

SUVA, Sept. 30. rAGEDY attended the completion of the two-years’ task of transferring about 2,000 Gilbertese from the Gilbert Islands (where there is over population) to the Phoenix Group (where there has been no population at all).

When the last shipload of Gilbertese was being taken into the Phoenix Group, the officer who has been in charge of the plan, Mr, G. B. Gallagher, aged 29, died suddenly from peritonitis. He was taken suddenly ill; and, at Gardner Is land, Dr. MacPherson, of Suva, who was in that locality, deemed it necessary to perform an urgent shipboard operation.

It was too late, however, and so the death occurred of one of the most able and popular young men in the service of the Western Pacific High Commission.

Mr. Gallagher came to Fiji in 1937 as a cadet-officer and made many friends in Suva. He was unmarried.

The transfer of the Gilbertese to cer tain of the Phoenix Islands—namely Hull, Sydney and Gardner—has been carried out in accordance with a careful plan.

The families taken from the poverty stricken Gilbertese districts where there is no more available land—were carefully selected; the localities of the new villages were chosen with due regard for quality of soil, water supply, etc.; wells have been sunk and hospitals pro vided; and a proper system of native administration has been created.

There is little doubt that the new settlement in the Phoenix Islands will be a complete success.