Sharp Argument In

Fiji

Liquor For Indians: None For Fijians

From Our Own Correspondent

Suva, Oct. 6.

rE Liquor Bill, which, before it was deferred last vear, caused consider able commotion, will come before the November sitting of the Legislative Council of Fiji.

Its main feature is that it will remove all the present permit-restrictions at present imposed oh the consumption of liquor bv Indians. At the same time, it maintains the rigidly-enforced permit system for the Fijians.

In an address to the Legislative Coun cil, the former Governor. Sir Alexander Grantham, surprisinglv described this as part of the Government’s policy of re moving racial discrimination a state ment which stirred newspaper correspon dents to a kind of frenzv.

For the most part, a controversy, a year ago, was waged over the argument that, by removing racial discrimination as between Indian and European, the Government was unforgivably deepening discrimination between Fijian and Indian, as well as between Fijian and everyone else.

Referred To Chiefs

rE Bill was held up and referred to the Council of Chiefs as a matter affecting the Fijian race. The Council of Chiefs was quite happy about the Bill.

Opponents of the Bill, however, were not satisfied, maintaining that if all and sundry among the Indians were freed from restrictions, and if the Fijians— barring, of course, the chiefs and the very limited number of commoners who can obtain permits—are prohibited, the way will be cleared for a splendid boot legging racket in adulterated liquor for Fijians, organised and run by enterpris ing Indians from Suva and other centres.

There is little doubt that such a menace will develop; and if the organi sation to stop it is no more successful than the efforts to cope with the Indian black-marketeers who to-day are making a good thing out of rice, sharps and other Indian foodstuffs, the danger to the Fijians will be much greater, economi cally and otherwise, than open selling of liquor.

Missions Intervene

rEN the missions came on the scene and united in a petition to the Secretary of State for the Colonies —a move which was the immediate cause of the deferring of the Bill.

No official statement has been made on the fate of the missions’ protest, which was based mainly on objections to the big proposed extension of liquor-con sumplioh; but the fact that the Bill has been republished indicates that the pro test has failed in London.

If, as is probable, the Liauor Bill goes through, it will be a freely-quotaole ex ample of legislation enacted in the face of bitter opposition from an unusually comprehensive cross-section of Fiji’s mixed population.

The missions are against it; all the Indian leaders are against it on religious or economic grounds; a vocal section of the Europeans is against it for various reasons—that most frequently-voiced being the obvious Indian-Fijian distinc tion, expressed on such lines as: “If the Indian riff-raff in Suva is to be entrusted with the ‘privilege’ of getting drunk when it wants to, and if the Fijians are not capable of supporting a similar “privi

lege,’ why in heaven’s name were the Fijians entrusted with all the most modern lethal weapons during the war?”

Enforced Cleavage

FINALLY, the Fijians, outside the chiefly and near-chiefly ranks, are resentful, not only at the distinction drawn between themselves and the more disreputable types of Indian, but also at the perpetuation of an enforced cleavage between chief and commoner in an age when everyone is screaming about equality and non-discrimination.

On this subject, as on others, the pro nouncements of the Council of Chiefs are not received by a large section of the Fijian masses with the unquestioning faith of former days. Sooner or later— and it would be wiser to be sooner—some means will have to be found to give

the Fijians a more effective voice in the control of their own affairs.

The idea that the example of the In dian, who has achieved “equality” in most things by a combination of shrewd scheming and clamorous agitation, may have been noted by the alert among the Fijians does not seem to have occurred to the higher official circles.

The Liquor Bill, which suggests that the equality-demanding Indian section has got away with it again, is not likely to improve public relationships in Fiji.

Mr. J. S. McKenzie, chief accountant for Colyer, Watson, Ltd., proceeded on a business trip to Rabaul at the end of last month.