For Fijians
p. 37 · Read in the full issue
No Australian Control For Fijians
From Our Own Correspondent
Suva, May 29.
A Sydney Morning Herald Cor
respondent, who attended the recent South Pacific Conference in Suva, later wrote that “many Island leaders” advocate an extension of Australian and New Zealand control in the South Pacific and a changeover from direct London and Paris control in the British and French territories The opinion of local Fijians indicates (1) that the Island leaders quoted, but not named, are unlikely to have included Fijian leaders; (2) that in the case of Fiji a change to administration from a capital nearer than London might have certain advantages: (3) that New Zealand and not Australia (as suggested by the Sydney paper’s correspondent) would be the Fijian choice of a “trustee Power” if a change became necessary, mainly because of the status of the Maori in the Do minion; (4) that there is a very strong Fijian attachment to Great Britain as well as to the British Crown; (5) that the whole question as it has been raised by the Sydney writer is virtually washed out in Fiji’s case by the Deed of Cession, which, as a direct pact between the Fijian people and the Crown, leaves no loophole for any “hawking-about.”