Indian Commissioner For Fiji
pp. 32-34 · Read in the full issue
Surprise Development In Delicate Political Situation
Prom Our Own Correspondent
SUVA, June 25.
NOT quite out of the blue—but very nearly, as far as most people were concerned —has come the announce ment that a Commissioner of the Gov ernment of India is to be stationed in Fiji. The announcement states that the appointment has been made “with the concurrence of his Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom.”
New Delhi has appointed Mr. S. A.
Waiz, secretary of the Imperial Indian Citizenship Association, Bombay, to fill the post.
It is officially stated that “the duties to be performed by the Commissioner for the Government of India will be similar to those of a consular representative. His instructions have been agreed upon with the Government of India, and the Indians in Fiji for whom he will act will be’ only those who are in the Colony otherwise than for the purpose of permanent resid ence.”
The wording of this announcement im plies that if Mr. Waiz is bound rigidly by the terms of his appointment he will have remarkably little to do.
The English-language newspapers here have not made any comment on this new development; but there is undoubtedly a feeling of astonishment among non- Indians that the British Government’s appeasement attitude is still so strong.
To suggest that this appointment is non-political would be nonsense. It is difficult to see how any appointee, short of an archangel, will be able to keep him self free from the political intrigues of the minority Indian factions here which, for years, have been quietly working to bring more and more Delhi interference to the affairs of Fiji.
When a parallel appointment was made recently in Mauritius (population 450,000 —300,000 Indians, and balance mixed Europeans, Africans and Chinese), the British people in that ctflony openly said that the writing was on the wall and that Mauritius was now well on the way to seeing the Europeans squeezed out, and itself becoming a province of India.
The Plain Facts
rE disconcerting aspect of this new appointment lies in the following facts: There are in Fiji about 270,000 people, of whom 125,000 are Fijians and 128,000 Indians. The Indians were brought in originally to work the sugar plantations, and have been permitted to settle in the Colony.
Under the Deed of Cession, the British undertook the protection and advance ment of the Fijian natives, and guaranteed the security of their lands.
The Indians are increasing more rapidly than the Fijians, and they are .angry for land.
The Indians are eager to secure political power, and sections of them are always agitating for equal authority with the British, man for man, in the administra tion of the Colony.
The Fijian governmental system was partly elective, until 1936, when owing to the growing agitation of the Indians for the common roll (equality with the British) an entirely nominative system was established.
Best-informed opinion in the South Pacific to-day is that any concession to the Fiji Indians would lead to endless political trouble and territorial disrup tion. In this respect, the present British Socialist Government—which already has destroyed the British Empire in the Middle East and Southern Asia—is re garded with frank suspicion. An Indian controlled Fiji—or, for that matter, a Fijl-Indian community—is not wanted in the South Pacific.
The subject is dealt with elsewhere in this issue.
Mr. A. Gardner, who has been manager of the Levuka (Fiji) branch of Burns Philp (SS) Ltd., for the past 12 years has resigned from the company. He will continue to reside in Levuka.