New Capital for BSI

But Shrouded in Dark Official Mystery

DEEP mystery surrounds the selection of a new “capital” for the British Solomons.

It is said to be Harira, or Honiara, op the Guadalcanal coast, opposite the old capital of Tulagi (which is on an island, close under the coast of Gela).

Casual reference was made to it some weeks ago, when the Fiji Information Office stated that the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific (Mr. A. W. G.

H. Grantham) had, in a tour of the Pro tectorate, visited “the new capital,”

Harira, as well as the old capital, Tulagi.

Officials in the Solomons Islands Office in Sydney, when asked for enlightenment, refused to talk. The first gentleman said he didn’t know where it was—he hadn’t been in BSI for three years. He intimated that he did not care where it was, either, and instructed us to call another officer, later.

We called the other officer, later. The other officer was immediately suspicious, but finally admitted that there was a new capital. He said its name might be Har ira. as the Fiji Information Office has intimated, but that the Sydney office believed it to be (and spelled it) Honiara.

He admitted further, but reluctantly, that it was on the coast of Guadalcanal, dir ectly opposite Tulagi.

But he could not sav why Tulagi had been condemned, or who had decided to shift the capital, or what plans were being made for the construction or future of Honiara/Harira. That, he %aid, would be against Security Regulations.

There are a few ex-Solomons residents to whom the selection of a new capital, as well as the abandonment of the old, would be news. Plain civilian residents, however, are small fry, and have no place in the plans of bureaucracy.

It would be interesting to know what harm could be done “security” by a little information concerning the whv and the wherefor of the new move. It is scarcely likelv. at this late date, that Hirohito & Suzuki Inc. are sitting up at nights won dering what goes on in domestic politics in the Solomons.