Votes for Fijians

Hould There Be

i STRONG light has again been L thrown on the question of whether the Fijians should have le vote, by the release for publica on of a letter by Mr. J. P. Bayley, Suva.

The letter is one which he sent an English Member of Parlia ent, asking him to take an interest Fiji in the House of Commons.

Mr Bayley has advocated votes r Fijians for some years on the ounds that they are well able to ke on political responsibilities, ley are 80 per cent, literate.

His main argument is that he ids it “a strange and a rough deal r the Fijian that the two im igrant races—the Europeans, and e Indians—have the vote while e Fijian in his own country has it.”

He points out, very pertinently, at the Fijian has a much higher te of literacy than some other oples to whom Britain has re ntly granted the vote—the West rican for example.

Unofficial opinion in Fiji is divided the matter. Some are strongly posed to the Fijian vote on the ounds that the Fijians are not idy for political responsibility, ley are afraid of the breaking up Fijian communal life, and •uld prefer to see reforms in

the Fijian’s economic status rather than in political status.

There may be some truth in this, but it is difficult to see that the British or the Indian or any other agricultural labourer is any the worse for being given a say in the government of his country. The surest way to make a man respon sible is to give him responsibility.

A vulnerable point in the case of those who advocate votes for Fijians is the fact that the Council of Chiefs recommended that there should be no change in the present arrange ments for the nomination of the Fijian Members of the Legislative Council.— Contributed.