British Federation In

Fiji Advocated It

25 Years Ago

British Federation In S. Pacific

THE reasons why, in the opinion of experienced observers, there should be a South Pacific Federation, to include at least all the British Territories and Colonies of the South Pacific, in a mqre-or less self-governing State within the British Commonwealth, were set out in the PIM in July.

Subsequently, in Rabaul, I met my old friend Mr. A. H. Cresswell; and he reminded me that this subject was raised in PIM nearly 15 years ago. ... , , In January, 1943, we published an article entitled “Dominion of British Oceania”, and the writer was “New Guinea Planter .

Actually, the writer was Mr.

Cresswell, and the article was written by him in a dugout in the Western Desert of Egypt.

I, the then editor of PIM, liked the idea put up by Mr. Cresswell, and in February PIM. in an article entitled “Let Us Remove the Dead Hands of Canberra, Whitehall and Wellington”, I lined up what I believed to be strong arguments in favour of a South Pacific Federa tion.

The publicity given to this idea brought an interesting communica tion from the late Sir Henry Milne Scott. He forwarded documents to show that on April 12, 1921, the Legislative Council of Fiji, on the [notion of Mr. Scott (as he then svas) resolved unanimously— (a) That the interests of the Empire in the Pacific would best be served by a Confederation of the British Islands of the Western Pacific, governed and controlled from a common centre. (b) That this resolution be trans mitted to the Secretary of State for Ihe Colonies, respectfully asking his ipproval.

A report of the debate showed that numerous strong arguments in favour of such a plan were set forth by Mr. Scott; that all the nembers —including the late Sir Maynard Hedstrom and the late Sir Henry Marks —supported him; and that the then Governor (Sir Cecil Rodwell) was in favour, although be recommended a Customs Union, rather than a Federation, in the beginning.

However, that seems to have been the end of Fiji’s move; and the subject remained dead until it was revived by PIM in January, February, May and December, 1943.

Then it was forgotten, again, in the welter of post-war preoccupa tions, following 1945.

It now is 35 years since that Fiji resolution: nearly 15 years since it was revived by PIM; and still

nothing has been done to remove “the dead hands” of remote control.

Australia and New Zealand, afler the war, made a move towards co ordination of administration effort, through the South Pacific Com mission; but that body has not developed even a suggestion of constitutional reform, especially in the direction of conceding to the South Pacific Territories a measure of self-government. R. w

Robson.

t Mrs. D. A. Donald has been visiting relatives in Suva, Fiji, from Southern Nigeria. Mrs. Donald is the wife of D. A. Donald, who before his transfer to Nigeria was

Agricultural Officer in BSIP and before that, in Fiji. The Donalds’ son, Mr. Alan Donald, is an officer of the Veterinary Division of the Fiji Department of Agriculture. t Suwarrow (Suvarov) atoll in the Cooks, abandoned since a team of Manihiki shell divers were with drawn in November, 1956, was to be aerial-photographed during Sep tember by a DCS aircraft of NZ Civil Aviation Administration. CAA aircraft, during their routine flights along the Coral Route, have photo graphed all the other islands of the Cooks Southern Group over the past year or so as cloud conditions have permitted. Parts of Rarotonga were still to be photographed during September.