And What

Of Fiji's Political

Minorities?

Prom a Suva Correspondent Fiji’s minority groups, if you exclude the Colony’s 11,000

Europeans, total 28,000 people;

and where do they figure in the political stew which is being stirred in London?

TN Fiji to date, and certainly at the A London conference, the stress is on the Fijians and Indians as the major racial groups of Fiji’s 456,000 people.

Yet the minorities have not been overlooked by the Government. The main purpose of the recent visit to Fiji of Mrs. Eirene White, the Parlia mentary Under-Secretary for the Colonies, was to gather the views of the minorities so that they could have an indirect voice in London.

As at the end of last December the minorities comprised nearly 10,000 part-Europeans, 7,000 “other island ers”, 5,600 Rotumans, and 5,400 Chinese.

Politically speaking the part-Euro peans are not minorities. They usually vote with the Europeans.

Islanders Not Interested

The Tongans, as an entity of their own, display little active interest in political matters, and nor do the descendants of the Solomon Island labourers (who are now almost Fijian) and the sprinkling of Gilbertese and Samoans to be found among the “other islanders”.

Perhaps these people have their own ideas about a special kind of minority Utopia in Fiji, but they are aware they can always be told simply to “go home” if any future political troubles develop.

The 1,600 Banabans on Rabi Island are a separate entity, with their own Council, and they don’t come into the political picture. The Banabans moved from Ocean Island to Rabi after the war as a result of the in roads the phosphate workings were making into Ocean Island. They purchased Rabi and a recent bill passed by the Fiji Legislative Council has made their tenure of the island safer than it was.

The Chinese, prosperous, hard working, never vociferous and, osten

[ sibly, supporters of the anti-Reds, [ formed a delegation to meet Mrs.

' White. They told her that they sup ported the communal roll and op posed the common roll. For the first time they asked for representation in the Legislative Council.

They told her that, up to a point, they were satisfied with things as they are but that, if there were to be con stitutional changes, they wanted a seat.

Mrs. White apparently replied with a hypotheses. She couldn’t commit the British Government, she told them, and her job was only to find out the views of unrepresented minorities.

But, she asked, how would the Chinese community like a seat on Legislative Council at the Europeans’ expense? She suggested purely hypothetically—that maybe the Euro pean representation could be cut to give the Chinese a seat.

The Chinese took a dim view of the suggestion and told Mrs. White that they thought there should be parity between the Fijians, Europeans and Indians, but they would still like a seat, but not at the Europeans’ ex pense.

With some Chinese perhaps actions speak louder than words. A com paratively large number of them, in cluding some well-known Suva busi ness people, have booked passages to Canada under the Canadian immi gration scheme, although others say this has got nothing to do with the political situation.

Rotuman Position

The Rotumans did not ask for separate representation when they net Mrs. White.

Instead they suggested that, in view >f the separate Rotuman Cession to he British Crown on May 13, 1881 —six years after Fiji—no decision iffecting the Rotuman people should )e made in the forthcoming London conference without full consultation vith the Rotuman Council.

The Council is the official repre entative authority of the Rotuman >eople.

The Rotumans realise, one told his writer, that change must come nd it will affect both the Rotumans a Rotuma and the not inconsider ible number living and working in 7 iji.

A suggestion was made recently bat the Rotumans, like the part- Luropeans, should be included in the European representation and voting trength, but the Rotumans didn’t like bat.

One of their spokesmen said he id not think the part-Europeans had enefited at all from inclusion on

the voting lists. In fact, he said, the part-Europeans were treated like Europeans “only at election times”.

Another minority which has asked for special consideration is the Muslim community forming 25 per cent, of the Indian community. Their spokesmen have several times asked for separate representation on the Legislative Council.

The reply of their brother Indians, the Hindus, is that Hindus and Muslims are one; that they are all Indians. But the bulk of Muslims do not agree—and neither do many of the Hindus.

Many Hindus refer to Muslims as Pakistanis, and the reference cannol escape a tinge of anti-Muslim feeling, bearing in mind the position today in India.

Mrs. White was unable to say whether the position of the Muslims in Fiji would be put on the agenda for the London talks but she recalled that their request for separate repre sentation was nothing new.

Mrs. White went home without having made an announcement of what she had learned among the minorities. We will hear about it, no doubt, in London.