WIRELESS AND EMPIRE AMBITION Wireless telegraphy/telephony and radio broadcasting in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, South-West Pacific (1914-1947): political, social and developmental perspectives Martin Lindsay Hadlow Master of Arts in Mass Communications, University of Leicester, 2003 Honorary Doctorate, Kazakh State National University (named after Al-Farabi), 1997 A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Queensland in 2016 School of Communication and Arts Abstract This thesis explores the establishment of wireless technology (telegraphy, telephony and broadcasting) in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate (BSIP), South-West Pacific and analyses its application as a political, social and cultural tool during the colonial years spanning the first half of the 20th century. While wireless seemed a ready-made technology for the Pacific, given its capability as a medium to transmit and receive signals instantly across vast expanses of ocean, the colonial civil servants of Britain’s Fiji-based regional headquarters, the Western Pacific High Commission (WPHC) in Suva, were slow to understand its strategic value. Conservative attitudes to governance, combined with a confidence born of Imperial rule, not to mention bureaucratic inertia and an almost complete lack of understanding of the new medium by a reluctant administration, aligned to cause obfuscation, delay and frustration. In the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, one of the most geographically remote ‘fragments of Empire’, pressures from the commercial sector (primarily planters and traders), the religious community (mission stations in remote locations), keen amateur experimenters (expatriate businessmen), wireless sales companies (Marconi and AWA Ltd.), not to mention the declaration of World War I itself, all intervened to bring about change to the stultified regulatory environment then pertaining and to ensure the introduction of wireless technology in its multitude of iterations. While also methodically tracing the manner in which wireless evolved in the colonial Pacific, specifically the BSIP, the thesis investigates and contextualises the philosophical and technical dimensions by which the authorities exploited the medium to control information flow, regulate commerce, express their own cultural dominance and suppress independence movements. Eventually, it took both the Second World War and a local rebellion against British authority to bring broadcasting into social prominence and to give a small radio voice, albeit moderated and controlled, to the indigenous Solomon Islands population. Declaration by author This thesis is composed of my original work, and contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference has been made in the text. I have clearly stated the contribution by others to jointly-authored works that I have included in my thesis. I have clearly stated the contribution of others to my thesis as a whole, including statistical assistance, survey design, data analysis, significant technical procedures, professional editorial advice, and any other original research work used or reported in my thesis. The content of my thesis is the result of work I have carried out since the commencement of my research higher degree candidature and does not include a substantial part of work that has been submitted to qualify for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution. I have clearly stated which parts of my thesis, if any, have been submitted to qualify for another award. I acknowledge that an electronic copy of my thesis must be lodged with the University Library and, subject to the policy and procedures of The University of Queensland, the thesis be made available for research and study in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968 unless a period of embargo has been approved by the Dean of the Graduate School. I acknowledge that copyright of all material contained in my thesis resides with the copyright holder(s) of that material. Where appropriate I have obtained copyright permission from the copyright holder to reproduce material in this thesis. Publications during candidature Chapters Hadlow, M. (2014). No Propaganda Will Be Broadcast: The Rise and Demise of Australian Military Broadcasting. In S. Turnbull, B. Griffen-Foley & G. Goggin (Eds.), Media International Australia (150), 77-82. St. Lucia, Qld: SJC/University of Queensland. Hadlow, M. (2009). The Mosquito Network: American Military Broadcasting in the South- West Pacific 1944-1946. In P. Dennis & J. Grey (Eds.), The Military, the Media and Information Warfare (pp. 74-95). Canberra: Australian Military History Publications. Hadlow, M. (2007). A Voice for the Voiceless? Community Radio and Social Change. In P. Thomas & M. Bromley (Eds.). Communication and Social Change: A Reader (pp. 73-83). St. Lucia, Qld: SJC. Encyclopedia contribution Hadlow, M. (2014). Armed Forces Media. In B. Griffen-Foley (Ed.), A Companion to the Australian Media (pp. 25-26). Melbourne: Australian Scholarly. Journal articles Hadlow, M. (2013). The Scourge of War: The Writing’s on the Wall. Media Asia, 40(4), 310-314. Hadlow, M. (2012). 24 Torpedo Bombers Headed Yours. Wartime, (57), 36-38. Hadlow, M. (2010). Tell Her the Baker’s Enlisted. Wartime, (49), 43-45. Hadlow, M. (2009). All that Twitters is Not Gold. Media Asia, 36(1), 3-4. Hadlow, M. (2009). New Media and the Next Generation: Game On…or Game Over? Media Digest, (June) 12-13. Publications included in this thesis No publications included. Contributions by others to the thesis No contributions by others. Statement of parts of the thesis submitted to qualify for the award of another degree Chapter XI: the paragraphs relating solely to the establishment of the US Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) contain some of the research material and original wording submitted in my dissertation for MA (Mass Communications) at the University of Leicester, 2000/2003. Degree awarded July, 2003. Acknowledgements This research endeavour has been a labour of love which has consumed portions of my life over a period of many years. Since working in Solomon Islands in the 1980s, the idea to document aspects of the development of wireless in that country has been a personal dream waiting to be fulfilled. Countless colleagues, friends and family members, too numerous to mention but too important to be forgotten, have urged me onwards as the project moved from an informal research exercise into a PhD programme. To my principal academic supervisor, Dr. Levi Obijiofor, and associate supervisor, Associate Professor Pradip Ninan Thomas, of the School of Communication and Arts at The University of Queensland, my sincere thanks for your encouragement, patience, diligence, candid opinions, objective criticism and intellectual rigour. I regret any angst the length of this PhD programme may have brought to your lives. Thank you for ‘cracking the whip’ and ensuring that I reached the finish line. ‘Tanggio tumas’ to Ashley Wickham, General Manager of the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation, who set the history hares running in 1982 with his suggestion that I prepare a booklet about broadcasting in Solomon Islands for the official opening of the new SIBC Headquarters in Honiara. At the Auckland University Library in New Zealand, my thanks to the professionals led by Stephen Innes, Director of Special Collections and in charge of the colonial archive of the British Western Pacific High Commission (WPHC). Thank you also to the Methodist Missionary Society Archives team in Auckland for enabling me to retrieve invaluable data. I am also grateful to Emeritus Professor Clive Moore CSI, of the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry at UQ, who allowed me to plunder his personal Solomon Islands archival collection. During the course of this research programme, I also visited other archives and libraries in Australia, USA, UK and Solomon Islands. Thank you to all the librarians and archivists who answered queries and made available documentation which added to my knowledge. vi Similarly, to all the correspondents with whom I have been in touch over the years, whether in person or via letter or e-mail, I express my appreciation. Special mention must be made of Martin Clemens, Dick Horton, Ron Calvert and Sir David Trench, formerly of the BSIP Administration and all, sadly, no longer with us. In the USA, a personal thank you to the late Colonel Thomas A. Lewis, Chief of the US Armed Forces Radio Service in World War II, and those US Army personnel who served with the AFRS in the BSIP during the war, Spencer Allen, Wilford Kennedy, Richard Sinclair, Allen Botzer, George Dvorak, Ivan Saddler, Rudolf Luukinen and Hy Averback. To the late Bill Bennett and all my wantoks at the SIBC, ‘tanggio tumas’ for your collegiality and for four very happy years with my family working with you in Solomon Islands. ’Lukim iu bihain.’ Without the on-going understanding, support and forbearance of my dear wife, Anne, and my children, Charlotte and Rupert, this PhD road would not have been travelled. They have lived the experience with me every step of the way for just as many years and I cannot thank them enough for their never-flagging encouragement and optimism. And finally, to my (late) loving parents, Brian and Greta Hadlow, whose ceaseless personal care and belief in the value of education inspired me to dream of undertaking the journey. ‘The coral waxes, the palm grows, but man departs.’