The Leader Fiji Needs'

New Fiji Governor 'Could Be The Leader Fiji Needs'

From Judy Tudor, in London It could be that Fiji has struck the jack-pot with her new Governor. Sir Derek Jakeway (Sir Derek only since the beginning of December when he was made KCMG) is probably the youngest Governor Fiji has had and he could be what Fiji needs—a leader and not a figurehead.

FJARK, squarish, with a pleasant personality and devoid of chitter chatter he listens well and says his piece only when he has something to say. He looks as though he could be a do-er as well as an administrator ■—in fact, without much imagination it is easy to see him as a District Commissioner of one of New Guinea’s tougher districts who had arrived there the hard way via many patrols.

And it is not always that Fiji’s Governors look as though they could ever have been Patrol Officers.

With Britain’s Colonial Empire now shrunk almost to vanishing point, Fiji, after Hong Kong, is probably the most important Governorship in the bestowal of the Colonial Office.

But if these top jobs have all but disappeared, the people in line for them have not. It has sometimes, in the past, been a matter of conjecture how or why the Colonial Office has chosen certain men for the Fiji post, but something more than hit or miss —or more appreciation of the prob

lems of Fiji—appears to have been attempted this time.

A new Governor, no matter how able, isn’t going to present a ready made answer to all Fiji’s troubles, of course. Amongst the imponder ables is the United Kingdom’s policy on the matter of former colonies and what appears to be her desire to liquidate them as soon as possible.

Unique

Fiji is unique in this age of emerg ing new nations in that the indigenous Fijians like things as they are and want no change. But if the British Government has decided that it is time to push Fiji out of the nest, whether it wants it or not, it could be that this new Governor, who looks as though he could take a tough decision when necessary, is the chosen instrument to do it.

The Governor and Lady Jakeway leave the UK about mid-January by air via USA and should arrive in Fiji about January 18. Their three sons—one at University and two at school—will remain in Britain.