No Change At

Present!

‘Unofficials’ Support The Fiji Constitution

From Our Own Correspondent

Suva, Dec. 19.

UNLIKE its predecessor a year ago, the 1949 Budget session of the Legislative Council of Fiji produced no major sensations.

The chief surprise was the way in which a substantial majority of the unofficial members rejected the final effort by one of them, Mr. A. A. Ragg, to secure re commendations for alterations to the Colony’s constitution.

Without a word or a vote being con tributed by any Government official, the unofficials threw out all the proposals for changes embodied in a motion based on the majority report of the unofficials’ Se lect Committee on the Constitution, and mostly by a two-thirds majority,

strenuously defended and supported the existing Constitution.

The only fragment of the motion that was left at the end of the debate was that which recommended the retention of the official majority in the council.

Mr. Ragg, who was chairman of the Constitution Committee, explained that he had reversed his policy on this point “in deference to Fijian wishes.” The re versal clearly took most of the sting out of the new motion, and four of the Indian members firmly opposed it. By 11 votes to four, however, the unofficials insisted on the retention of the official majority.

Led by Sir Hugh Ragg and Mr. H.

Maurice Scott, the European unofficials backed the five Fijians, who flatly re jected Mr. Ragg’s proposal for an altera tion in the working of the Council of Chiefs. Said Mr. Scott: “When the Fijians say ‘No’—as they have —I won’t support the demands of others.”

Fijian and European members con tended that events outside Fiji, as well as post-war developments inside these islands, indicated plainly that the pre sent was not the time to start constitu tional changes or experiments.

Fijian speakers pointedly asked where else in the world could three races, with sometimes conflicting interests, manage to exist in a small compass with less strife than in Fiji.

By a succession of overwhelming majority votes, the unofficials, debating independently, had upheld the official majority, the retention of the nominative system for two European and two Indian seats, and the present system of Fijian representation.

In short, the constitution emerged re inforced.