Alternatives Before The Fijians
p. 67 · Read in the full issue
Deportation of Indians—or Extinction Under Asiatic Flood
THE following letter by three Fijians (names and addresses enclosed) has been submitted in reply to a state ment attributed to the Indian Com missioner in Fiji that the Indians have “made a paradise out of the virgin forest of Fiji”. They write: “The Indians in Fiji are now openly claiming that they are responsible, not only for the economic development of Fiji, but also for ‘bringing civilisation to the Fijians’, “If it is true that a strong feeling of antagonism to the Indians is spreading among the Fijians, it is time that the Indians were warned that such lies are adding fuel to the fire.
“The Indians first came to Fiji as in dentured labourers for the CSR Company.
In Fijian eyes they were an uncivilised community in all essentials and their subsequent progress has been due to three factors: Indian ambition and avaricious ness, British easy-going benevolence and (not least) Fijian tolerance* and hos pitality.
“The Fijians have suffered through the spreading of Asiatic diseases by the Indians; today, Fijian lands are being ruined by Indians who absolutely refuse to follow the Government’s advice and practical teaching in care of the soil and the prevention of erosion; in most parts of the Colony Indians are arrogantly grazing their stock on Fijian land with out permission—including reserves made for the Fijians in response to the Indian demand for land.
“Indian farming methods and other practices may be an example of their
prized ‘civilisation’, but they are turning large areas of Fiji into eroded deserts of the future.
“The Indian birthrate is a problem which India itself is struggling to solve.
In Fiji it is causing endless administrative worries which detrimentally affect Fijians and Europeans rather than Indians.
“Can the Fijians be blamed if today they see only two solutions to the problem of Fiji—either their own extinction under the Indian flood or the removal of the Indians to their homeland? The Samoans have asserted their right to their own homeland. Is it just that the Fijian race should be submerged by Asiatics who, for all their hypocrisy, are and must be antagonistic to the people whose land they demand?
“As Fijians, we declare that there is no such thing as ‘Little India of the Pacific’.
The Indians demand every right and every privilege of British citizens, but there is no loyalty to the British Commonwealth in them. A Fijian recently wrote in the press that the Indians refused war service because of an instinctive realisa tion that Fiji was not theirs. That is absolutely true.”
Dr. M. Rose, senior medical officer of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, is spending furlough in Sydney.
Miss .Mar jorie Allan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. Allan, of Gilalum Plantation, New Britain, has announced her engage ment to Mr. Lionel Mansfie’d. of Kokopo.
The wedding will take place shortly.
Lt.-Col. F. W. Voelcker, DSO, MC, will return to New Zealand in February, at the conclusion of his term of High Com missioner in Western Samoa. He will be succeeded by Mr. G. R. Powles, recently Counsellor in the NZ Legation in Wash ington.