Assumed Duty in July

New Governor Of

Fiji

HAVING travelled with remarkable rapidity, Major-General Sir Philip Mitchell —whose appointment was officially announced only on June 19— arrived in Suva in mid-July, and imme diately assumed office as Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner for the West ern Pacific.

Sir Harry Luke, who was appointed in September. 1938, and resigned in June, 1942, left Fiii in July and proceeded to New Zealand, en route to London. His departure was accompanied by expres sions of regret from leaders of all four communities—European, Fijian. Indian and Chinese —among whom he had made manv friends.

Fijian administrative affairs apparently will undergo a considerable change around, as the result of the almost simultaneous arrival of a new Governor and a new Colonial Secretary (Mr. A.

T. Newboult, lately of Malaya, whose appointment was reported in last issue) and the reported transfer of Mr. C. W.

Trevor Johnson (Acting Colonial Secre tarv, who has spent most of his life in Fiji, and whose knowledge of the pdministrative machinery is encyclopae dic). The report that he has been trans ferred was received in Svdney unoffi cially in July, however, and may not be correct.

Mr. A. T. Newboult. whose appointment as Colonial Secretary of Fiji was an nounced recently, arrived in Suva earlv in June, and was already in office when the new Governor arrived.

As stated in July. Mr. Newboult had been over 20 years in Malaya, where he held many important offices. He left Malaya when the Japanese invasion occurred.