Lautoka's Indian

Lively Post-Royal-Visit

Incident In Fiji

Mayor On The

Warpath

Never were the difficulties and embarrassments of Fiji’s racial mixture shown more clearly than by a row which occurred in the Lautoka Town Council on Feb ruary 17, wherein the Council, by five votes to four, declared no-confidence in the mayor, Councillor Choy Gopal, and de manded that he resign.

It was over the arrangements made for the visit of the Queen Mother to Nadi and Lautoka on January 31—Feb 1.

ON December 20, the Western District Commissioner’s office telephoned and asked Mayor Gopal to a meeting, to be held December 30, to discuss the Royal Visit nro gramme. Mayor Gopal noted ‘ the meeting as for December 31.

No one ever has discovered who made the error —mayor or official.

The meeting was held without Mayor Gopal. He learned of it that day, soon after it was over, and naturally was perturbed.

Western Commissioner J. A. C.

Hill telephoned apologies, but said the meeting arrangements would come for confirmation before an other meeting on January 8. Mayor Gopal said he would be there.

Probably, no one explained to the mayor at that stage that this Royal Visit really was very difficult for Fiji’s high officialdom.

It was not “official” it was merely to be a break in the Queen Mother’s long air journey from Canada to New Zealand. Presen tations were “out”.

She was to be greeted at the air port by the Governor, as a matter of course. As it was Fiji, it was deemed wise to introduce also the senior Fijian notable—Sir Lala Sukuna.

As the Royal visitor planned to spend the night at the Governor’s Bure, some 20 miles from the air port, she had to enter the Lautoka area. Lautoka, which is predomin antly Indian, in its turn became officially stirred.

Hence, as they say in some tropi cal places, the milk in the coconut! (They only thought “presenta tions” would be out. Before Her Majesty left, she had had to shake hands with scores of eager people.)

Before January 8, the mayor got the minutes of the Dec. 30 meeting.

He was angered by what he found— he thought that he, as mayor, should have been consulted about Lautoka arrangements.

He said so at the Jan, 8 meeting— said that provision should have been made for the presentation of Lautoka Councillors by him to the Queen Mother; and that he ob jected to the mayor of Lautoka being placed in the second row on the dais at the park ceremony in Lautoka, while Sir Lala Sukuna and Ratu Edward Cakobau were with

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ueen Mother and the Gov in the first row. or Gopal also argued that he lis Councillors, on behalf of :a, should greet the Queen r and escort her to the dais, rict Officer H. Halstead i out that nothing could be

changed now —the programme as arranged on December 30 already had been approved by the Governor.

There could be no presentations of Councillors or anyone else prior to the Fijian welcome; and, in any event, it was desired to reduce the number of presentations.

Mayor Gopal, unappeased, went to Suva next day and took the matter up with the Colonial Sec retary and considerable correspon dence ensued.

At one stage, the Mayor told the Western Commissioner; “I felt that because I was an Indian I had been ignored,”

"Not a Victim"

Eventually, Colonial Secretary Macdonald and Western Commis sioner Hill succeeded in convincing the angry mayor that he had not been made the victim of a rather cunning bureaucratic plot, to keep him in the background of the Royal reception programme.

He joined the Governor in wel coming Her Majesty at Nadi airport, and the original plan under which his little daughter was to present the visitor with a bouquet when she entered Laukota was carried out; and all went well.

Until the next Town Council meeting. Then there were wigs on the village green.

There are nine Councillors—four Indian, four European and one Fijian. The Europeans (Councillors K. A. E. Marlow, H. T. T. Mansell, H. Eyre and R. B. Ingleton) evi dently decided that the mayor had been unnecessarily active and in sistent in demanding a bigger place for the Council in the programme.

Sharp exchanges occurred. They moved their vote of no-confidence

coupled with a demand for resign nation.

The Mayor was supported by Councillors D. S. Naidu, G. Shan karan, and Pragji Sidha. Votings four all.

All eyes upon the fifth Councillor a clergyman, the Rev. Kolinio Sau kuru, and the only Fijian. He, quite understandably, said he did not wish to vote. When the Council insisted, he voted with the Euro peans.

The Mayor, with spirit, defied the motion, and refused to resign—and still is carrying on. The little stoim is over.

Officialdom's Fault

Many such incidents have oc curred in recent years. The Indian community is extremely sensitive on the matter of racial discrimina tion, and often sees slights where none was intended.

But in this case, the fault clearly lay with officialdom.

The error over the date probably was a clerical error. But why did not the Western Commissioner, hav ing learned within an hour of the end of the meeting that an impor tant official like the Lautoka mayor had been absent through error, not take special pains to place an out line of the meeting’s decisions in the hands of the mayor, for his approval or comments before they were sent to the Governor? It was then, if the mayor had objections to the programme, that the un official character of the Royal visit could have been explained to him.

There seems to have been some blithesome disregard of the mayor’s office, all the more deplorable when Indian sensitivity in this respect is taken into account.