[?]vas Sea Baths

Wether In—

ILITY to pay (and, of course, lompliance with the by-laws), dll in future be the only factor eciding whether you can use Suva sea-baths or not. estions of race, colour and 1 worthiness are out. ends the long battle of wills sen European and Indian com ities on the question of sea ng in Suva. sent capitulation of the Suva Council (which owns the baths) Councillor J. B. Turner dis ag, can be taken as conceding tory to the Indians—and pre bly there has been general re ig amongst this section of the community, plus hurrahs in way places where any kind of siveness is seen as horrid >h imperialism. ny years ago the Suva sea were built, according to Mr. sr, “by Europeans for Euro >” but as PIM remembers it, l municipal project. The city rs decided that they were for se of Europeans only (although )ers of Fiji’s Chinese com ty have patronised them). This d the ire of the Indian com ty, particularly of Indian rate s, who insisted that as they :o pay lor the upkeep of the they should be permitted to hem.

' city fathers stuck to their but to keep the record straight, another sea-baths, exclusively le use of Indians. The Indians tted them, and to this day remain unused —except (again ig Mr. Turner), in which mmit an occasional nuisance which they have to be closed eaning. ) reasons are now given for the :e of heart: Tie Sea Baths have become a e on the City of Suva—they ot paying. t is now admitted that there ;hing in the by-laws covering iths to exclude non-Europeans r exclusion simply hinged on 2ity Council’s instructions to aretaker and if an excluded i or Fijian had cared to take ase to court it was unlikely be would lose. / that it is all in together I be interesting to see if and w much the receipts go up. ans, too, will now have a e to show their paces as ners. All Fijians can swim, •urse —but some people have 3ted that they might have championship mater i a 1 ? them. To date there has been anywhere to try them ) see if they have.

(It goes without saying that there never has been one peep out of the Fijians on the matter of segrega tion in Suva’s salt-sea baths.) t A proposed seismographic survey of the lagoon near Noumea, New Caledonia, in which about 30 tons of explosive will be used by a French oil search company, has brought protests from local pro fessional fishermen and sportsmen The oil-searchers say that it will do no harm—or not very much Fishermen say that it will. The argument proceeds.