Accommodating indigenous Privilege: Britain's dilemma in decolonising Fiji

Journal of Pacific History

Volumn 37, Issue 2, 2002, Pages 133-156

  Norton, Robert ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 8644222278     PISSN: 00223344     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/0022334022000006574     Document Type: Article

References (104)

1. Rogers to Governor Maddocks, 14 Aug. 1959, London, Kew, Public Record Office, Colonial Office (hereinafter CO), 1036/307.
2. Reid to Ivison, 28 Apr. 1962, CO1036/775.
3. Jakeway to Secretary of State, 7 May 1964, CO1036/1282.
4. J.W. Davidson, 'Constitutional change in Fiji', Journal of Pacific History, 1 (1966), 165-82
5. quoted in Brij V. Lal, A Vision for Change: A.D. Patel and the politics of Fiji (Canberra 1997), 208-9.
6. Yash Ghai, 'Constitutional order in multi-ethnic societies', in Brij V. Lal and Michael Pretes (eds), Coup: reflections on the political crisis in Fiji (Canberra 2001), 36.
7. John D. Kelly and Martha Kaplan, Represented Communities: Fiji and world decolonisation (Chicago 2001), 198, 150-1.
8. Roderic Alley, 'The emergence of party politics', in Brij V. Lal (ed.) Politics in Fji (Sydney 1986), 29.
9. Deryck Scarr, The History of the Pacific Islands (Melbourne 1990), 311.
10. The National Archives of Fiji has disappointingly little available to researchers for the 1960s. The Public Records Office in London has released a large number of files, many of which have recently been microfilmed for the Menzies Library at the Australian National University.
11. 'Fijians have strong political representation in the Legislative Council and an advisory Council of Chiefs, but no direct responsibility or authority. This is lopsided and if it doesn't produce irresponsible nationalism or racialism it will be surprising.' Mitchell to Secretary of State, 4 Oct. 1943, CO83/236/85231.
12. CO1036/307, 308, 614, and confidential files, Suva, National Archives of Fiji (hereinafter NAF); MacDonald to Secretary of State, 8 May 1959, CO1036/438.
13. Dervck Scarr, Ratu Sukuna: soldier, statesman, man of two worlds (London 1990).
14. Maddocks to Secretary of State, 30 Dec. 1960, CO1036/812.
15. See also Carl Hughes, 'Racial issues in Fiji', DPhil thesis, Oxford University (Oxford 1965), 359.
16. MacDonald to Burns, 8 May 1959, CO1036/438. The Fijian Administration 'came to he regarded in the Fijian mind as the guardian office of their race, the special instrument of British administration for their protection". MacDonald to Secretary of State, 30 Dec. 1960, CO1036/812.
17. Burns at meeting with officials in Colonial Office, 19 Nov. 1959, and letter to Hall, 14 Sept 1959, CO1036/439. During the 1950s the Colonial Office had become exasperated at Garvey's inability to secure the chiefs' agreement to reforms, especially the franchise for Fijians and commercial development of their lands.
18. Maddocks to Secretary of State, 19 June 1962, CO1036/775.
19. Colonial Office, 29 Oct. 1959, CO1036/402.
20. 'Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Natural Resources and Population Trends of the Colony of Fiji, 1959', Legislative Council Paper No. 1 of 1960.
21. Intelligence Committee Report, May 1960, CO1036/700. Fijian anxiety was increased by knowledge that Indian political leaders had in their submission to the Burns Commission called for racial parity 'in matters of land utilisation and holding' (pp 11-12 of the submission, in CO1036/438).
22. Maddocks to Secretary of State, 28 Feb. 1961, CO1036/774.
23. See also Brij V. Lal, Broken Waves: a history of Fiji in the twentieth century (Honolulu 1992), 179-80, 185-6.
24. Maddocks to Colonial Office, 14 Apr. 1960, CO1036/700.
25. Maddocks to Secretary of State, 30 Dec. 1960, GO1036/812.
26. CO1036/436,437,438 (especially meetings in 1959 between Secretary of State and the Burns Commission).
27. Notes of meeting between Burns and Secretary of State, Apr. 1959, CO1036/437.
28. MacDonald to Maddocks, 5 Aug. 1960, CO1036/612.
29. Political Intelligence Report, Sept. 1960, CO1036/700. In addition to the concern over the security of their land, Fijians feared that the ending of colonial rule would allow Indian dominance in the civil service, for on the basis of educational attainments, Indians were increasingly ahead of them at senior levels.
30. 'Policy in Fiji', 8 Nov. 1960, CO1036/612. Amery was so struck by the ethnic divide that he favoured the establishment of an Indian 'counteipart' to the Fijian Administration. There was little support in the Colonial Office for such ideas, however, and one influential response to Amery's stress on ethnic separation and conflict was that it was 'a counsel of despair which must not be allowed to discourage the long-term commitment to promoting 'multiracialism' in Fiji (minute by Colonial Office head Sir Hilton Poynton, 10 Nov. 1960, CO1036/612).
31. Maddocks to Hall, 7 Apr. 1961, CO1036/612.
32. Maddocks to Secretary of State, 18 Nov. 1960, CO1036/612.
33. Poynton to Maddocks, 17 Nov. 1960, CO1036/612.
34. Fiji Legislative Council Debates, 21-24 Apr. 1961, pp 129-98.
35. Acting Governor to Hall, 1 May 1961, CO1036/612.
36. MacDonald to Secretary of State, 21 July 1961, CO1036/613.
37. Maddocks to Secretary of State, 8 Nov. 1961, CO1036/701.
38. Fiji Legislative Council Debates, 12 Dec. 1961, 673.
39. Political Intelligence Committee assessment, 1962, CO1036//75;
40. Maddocks to Secretary of State, 10 Oct. 1962, CO1036/618.
41. 'Constitutional Advance in Fiji', Dec. 1962, CO1036/1004.
42. Lal, Broken Waves, 187-8;
43. see also Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, The. Pacific Way: a memoir (Honolulu 1997), 68.
44. Haddocks to Secretary of State, 13 Mar. 1963, CO1036/1214.
45. Political Intelligence Report, May 1964, CO1036/1215. In 1963 the Political Intelligence Committee comprised the assistant colonial secretary, district commissioners, army commander, and representatives of police special branch.
46. MacDonald to Marnham in Colonial Office, 15 Oct. 1963, CO1036/1263.
47. From a memo of 1963, in 'Briefs for Mrs White's visit', CO1036/1549.
48. Confidential file, NAF.
49. Mara's official diaries in NAF.
50. MacDonald to Trafford-Smith, 23 Dec. 1963, CO1036/1231.
51. Maddocks to Secretary of State, 13 Mar. 1963, CO1036/1214. Studies of Fiji's political development have often depicted the chiefly élite as the most reactionary element among the Fijians. In the 1960s, and later, the most strident ethnicist voice tended to come from people of low or modest traditional status, from educated 'commoners' rather than leading chiefs. Some of the high chiefs played a crucial role in constraining this force and in encouraging concessions to the other ethnic groups. Fijians who publicly advocated a common franchise were rare.
52. Political Intelligence Report, May 1964, CO1036/1215.
53. In 'Briefs for Mrs White's visit', CO1036/1549. In a personal letter to a Colonial Office friend, Mara remarked on criticisms by Fijian 'demagogues' of 'our so-called tame and unwarrior-like attitude' (Mara to Marnham, 19 Mar. 1964, CO1036/1067). He told Colonial Office emissary Trafford-Smith that he had revived the Fijian Association to try to contain 'the more extreme Fijians' (in 'Briefs for Mrs White's Visit', Apr. 1965, CO1036/1549).
54. Maddocks to Marnhani, 6 Feb. 1962, CO1036/1001. Colonial Secretary MacDonald described Mara as 'a mass of complexes and contradictions with a load of chips on his shoulders ... (and) liable to explode from time to time over this and that ... It is because of such explosions, coupled with his great potential for political leadership, that he must be treated with the greatest care and given his due, and more, wherever possible ... We need his support so much for progress in so many fields ...' (MacDonald to Marnham, 15 Oct. 1963, CO1036/1263).
55. Garvey to Marnham, 14 Nov. 1962, CO 1036/703. Apolosi Nawai was a millenarian leader exiled by government several times before his death in 1946 (Timothy MacNaught, 'The man from Ra: Apolosi Nawai', in Deryck Scarr (ed.), More Pacific Islands Portraits (Canberra 1978).
56. Colonial Office report on Fisher's visit to Fiji, 9 Apr. 1963, CO1036/1280.
57. MacDonald to Trafford-Smith, 30 Nov. 1963, CO1036/1231. Falvey warned that 'the Fijians would see in any whittling down of European representation the beginning of a move toward Indian domination' (remarks to Trafford-Smith, Apr. 1965, in 'Briefs for Mrs White's visit', CO1036/1549).
58. Robert Norton, interview with A.D. Patel, Nadi, 31 Oct. 1966.
59. Robert Norton, Race and Politics in Fiji (St Lucia 1977), 32-7.
60. Police Special Branch Report, Nov. 1960, CO1036/700.
61. Haddocks to Poynton in Colonial Office, 14 Dec. 1962, CO1036/1280.
62. MacDonald to Trafford-Smith, 30 Nov. 1963, CO1036/1281; MacDonald to Marnham in Colonial Office, 15 Oct. 1963, CO1036/1263. The Federation Party was the principal Indian political organisation, renamed National Federation Party in 1969 after being joined by a small Fijian party.
63. MacDonald to Marnham, 15 Oct. 1963, CO1036/1263.
64. Patel to Trafford-Smith in 'Briefs for Mrs White's Visit', CO1036/1549.
65. Political Intelligence Report, Mar. 1963, CO1036/1280.
66. Maddocks to Sandys, 10 Oct. 1962, CO1036/775;
67. Colonial Office report on Fisher's visit to Fiji, 9 Apr. 1963, CO1036/1280;
68. Fisher to Secretary of State, June 1963, CO1036/1281.
69. Fiji Legislative Council Debates, 17 Jan. 1964, pp 5-17.
70. Robert Norton, Race and Politics in Fiji, 2nd edn (St Lucia 1990), Ch. 5;
71. Lal, A Vision for Change, Ch. 9.
72. MacDonald to Trafford-Smith, 31 Oct. 1963, GO1036/1281.
73. Jakeway to Trafford-Smith, 8 Apr. 1965, CO1036/1263.
74. Jakeway to Trafford-Smith, 25 Sept. 1964, CO1036/1459;
75. Jakeway to Trafford-Smith, 17 Mar. and 8 Apr. 1965, GO1036/1283. The Fijian leaders' principal adviser on constitutional and land matters, John Falvey, was confident that if the land problem could be resolved, the Indians would 'come off common roll': 'The land is the Fijians' trump card, and they know it ... [but] they do not want to make the concession too soon as they would lose the card' (remarks to Trafford-Smith, Apr. 1965, in 'Briefs for Mrs White's visit', GO1036/1549).
76. Jakcway to Trafford-Smith, 25 Sept. 1964, CO1036/1459. Since the early 1960s, in response to a recommendation of the Burns Commission, the Colonial Government had been preparing to legislate in favour of agricultural tenants.
77. Jakeway to Trafford-Smith, 14 May 1965, CO1036/1283.
78. Trafford-Smith's interview with Patel, GO1036/1549.
79. MacDonald to Jakeway, 6 May 1965, CO1036/1283.
80. Political Intelligence Report, May 1965, CO1036/1216.
81. Jakewav to Trafford-Smith, 8 June 1965, CO1036/1283.
82. Fairclough to Trafford-Smith, 1 June 1965, CO 1036/1283. The official British team sent to Fiji for discussions in preparation for the conference became reconciled to slow progress with constitutional change. Its leader, Irene White, remarked in one local interview: 'People are communally minded here and you can't wish that away ... You have to face it as a fact of life' (Confidential file, NAF).
83. Secretary of State to UK cabinet 29 June 1965, CO1036/1283. The head of the Pacific and Indian Ocean Department in the Colonial Office was convinced that given the growing threat of inter-communal conflict, 'it is pretty clear that a great deal will still have to be left in the Governor's hands' (Fairclough to Trafford-Smith, 1 June 1965, CO1036/1283).
84. 'Fiji Constitutional Conference, 1965', Cmnd Paper 2783, Oct. 1965, 7.
85. Colonial Office to Secretary of State, late 1965, CO1036/1131. Before the conference, Jakeway had proposed the introduction of some common roll electorates with ethnically reserved seats. The new constitution created three such electorates, each with a Fijian, an Indian, and a General seat. These 'cross voting' electorates, modelled on a system iirtroduced in colonial Tanganyika, had been under consideration for Fiji since 1960. The British delegates persuaded the Fijians to agree to the cross-voting innovation, partly by arguing that a purely communal roll system would be more likely to 'entrench the position of extremist and uncooperative Indians' (Secretary of State, 30 July 1965, CO1036/1119).
86. Paper on Fiji prepared by Pacific and Indian Ocean Department, July 1968, London, Kew, Public Records Office, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (hereinafter FCO) 32/30. The Fijian delegates insisted that they would be 'unable to face their people' if they made a concession to the common roll demand, for it would mean 'victory for Patel'. Mara insisted that he would then feel compelled 'to retire from public life', and Ganilau warned of the possibility of violence (Trafford-Smith to Acting Governor of Fiji, 30 July 1965, CO1036/1119).
87. Colonial Office to Jakeway, 20 Aug. 1965, CO1036/1131. Thirty years later Mara recalled 'a thoroughly bad-tempered conference' (Mara, The Pacific Way, 77-8).
88. 'Fiji Constitutional Conference', 7. On the eve of the conference, the Governor had sent to London, without comment, a secret report on the Federation Party prepared by his Colonial Secretariat and the Police Special Branch. It concluded that 'there is little doubt that the long-term aim of Patel and Koya is to secure the political and economic domination of Fiji by the Indians under their own leadership', and that 'they are unlikely to remain content with a constitution which does not appear likely to result in increasing Indian dominance'; 'However, assuming that the London Conference results in a reasonable measure of internal self-government under a constitution whereby ... The Fijians and Europeans collectively outnumber the Indians in Legislative Council, it will not be easy for the Party leaders, atleast initially, to pursue their ambitions effectively' (29 June 1965, CO1036/1125). The only recorded comment from London on this report is that it would be 'useful'.
89. NAF, F5/26/1. Patel was also aggrieved about the conduct of the conference. The British delegates, he claimed, had allowed little opportunity for all delegates to meet in open forum to discuss and negotiate on the most contentious issue. Most sessions, he complained, involved the different groups meeting separately with the British delegates (Norton, interview with Patel, 31 Oct. 1966).
90. Colonial Office to Jakeway, 20 Aug. 1965, CO1036/1131. 'The Indians tabled a largely theoretical paper on common roll which, whatever its merits as a long term objective, was not of immediate practical application in the preparation of a constitution for the next stage' (Colonial Office to Jakeway, 20 Aug. 1965, CO1036/1131). The British delegates considered that Patel and his colleagues had performed incompetently, especially in miscalculating the possibility of British intervention against the Fijian and European opposition to their common roll proposal (Trafford-Smith to MacDonald, 17 Aug. 1965, CO1036/1119). There was much discussion in the Colonial office on how to justify the conference outcome, particularly to the United Nations. It was agreed that, to keep future constitutional options open, it must not he said that the Fijians held a 'special position', although this had sometimes been recognised in the past. Rather, it should be insisted that the outcome was 'the best bargain' possible in the circumstances, and that it would have been dangerous to have tried to impose a constitution on the Fijians (CO 1036/1131). Further advance would depend 'on the extent to which the Indians can remove the suspicions and fears of the Fijians' (Pearce to Barder of the UK Mission to the UN, 1 Oct. 1965, CO1036/1129).
91. Trafford-Smith to Jakeway, 16 Aug. 1965, CO1036/1067.
92. Jakeway to Trafford-Smith, 30 Nov. 1965, CO1036/1067.
93. Norton, Race and Politics (1990), Ch. 5.
94. Gilmore to Wheatley, 27 Nov. 1963, CO1036/1281.
95. In Jakeway to Trafford-Smith, 30 Nov. 1965, CO1036/1067.
96. Jakeway to Secretary of State, 24 Nov. 1964, CO1036/1282, and 30 Nov. 1965, CO1036/1067.
97. Alley, 'The emergence of party polities', 35, 49. Jakeway asked the Colonial Office to assist Mara and Falvey by sending out 'a full-time secretaiy ... with mid 1950s Malayan experience'.
98. Norton, Race and Politics;
99. Jakeway's report to London, Jan. 1968, FC032/24. Federation Party leaders' anger at their exclusion from the Council of Ministers inaugurated in 1967 was a major reason for their subsequent boycott of the Legislative Council. The Governor's decision to give all ministerial posts to the Alliance Party contravened a provision in the 1965 constitutional conference White Paper that such positions would be allocated to ensure fair representation of the major ethnic groups.
100. Lloyd to Fairclough, 15 Sept. 1967, FG032/21.
101. Scarr, The History of the Pacific Islands, 311.
102. 'Political Background to Public Service Affairs', memo for Pacific Staffing Mission, Apr. 1968, FC032/62.
103. Jakeway to Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 15 Feb. 1968, FCO32/23.
104. The 1970 constitution restored parity of representation in the House of Representatives.