00-Fiji-Blurb-cpp 10/5/06 6:48 AM Page 1 British Documents on the End of Empire Project Volumes Published and Forthcoming Series A General Volumes Series B Country Volumes Vol 1 Imperial Policy and Vol 1 Ghana (in two parts, 1992) Colonial Practice Vol 2 Sri Lanka (in two parts, 1997) 1925-1945 (in two parts, 1996) Vol 3 Malaya (in three parts, 1995) Vol 2 The Labour Government and Vol 4 Egypt and the Defence of the the End of Empire 1945-1951 Middle East (in three parts, 1998) (in four parts, 1992) Vol 5 Sudan (in two parts, 1998) Vol 3 The Conservative Government Vol 6 The West Indies (in one part, and the End of Empire 1999) 1951-1957 (in three parts, 1994) Vol 7 Nigeria (in two parts, 2001) Vol 4 The Conservative Government Vol 8 Malaysia (in one part, 2004) and the End of Empire Vol 9 Central Africa (in two parts, 1957-1964 (in two parts, 2000) 2005) Vol 5 East of Suez and the Vol 10 Fiji (in one part, 2006) Commonwealth 1964-1971 (in three parts, 2004) ● Series A is complete. Further country volumes in series B are in preparation on Kenya, Southern Africa, and the Mediterranean (Cyprus and Malta). The Volume Editor BRIJ V LAL is professor, Division of Pacific and Asian History and Centre for the Contemporary Pacific, at the Australian National University. He was a member of the Fiji Constitution Review Commission whose report forms the basis of Fiji’s constitution. His publications include Broken waves: a history of the Fiji Islands in the 20th century (1992), and A vision for change: A D Patel and the politics of Fiji (1997). 00-Fiji-Blurb-cpp 10/5/06 6:48 AM Page 1 01-Fiji-Prelims-cpp 10/5/06 6:50 AM Page i Fiji 01-Fiji-Prelims-cpp 10/5/06 6:50 AM Page ii The British Documents on the End of Empire Project gratefully acknowledges the generous assistance of the Arts and Humanities Research Board. The Project has been undertaken under the auspices of the British Academy. 01-Fiji-Prelims-cpp 10/5/06 6:50 AM Page iii BRITISH DOCUMENTS ON THE END OF EMPIRE General Editor S R Ashton Project Chairman A N Porter Series B Volume 10 Fiji Editor BRIJ V LAL Part I MANAGING POLITICAL REFORM 1943–1953 Published for the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in the University of London LONDON: TSO 01-Fiji-Prelims-cpp 10/5/06 6:50 AM Page iv First published 2006 © The Stationery Office 2006 Second impression 2008 Introduction © Professor Brij V Lal, 2006 Documents from The National Archives © Crown copyright Crown copyright material used by permission of The National Archives under licence from the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the permission of the Publishers Applications for reproduction of government documents in this work should be addressed to the Copyright Officer, The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU Applications for reproduction of any other part of this work should be addressed to the publisher: The Stationery Office, St Crispins, Duke Street, Norwich, NR3 1PD ISBN 978 011 290589 9 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library If you wish to receive future volumes from the British Documents on the End of Empire project, please write to TSO, Standing Order Department, PO Box 29, St Crispins, Duke Street, NORWICH NR3 1GN, or telephone on 0870 600 5522, quoting classification reference numbers 04 03 017 and 04 03 018 Published by TSO (The Stationery Office) and available from: Online www.tsoshop.co.uk Mail, Telephone, Fax & E-mail TSO PO Box 29, Norwich NR3 1GN Telephone orders/General enquiries: 0870 600 5522 Fax orders: 0870 600 5533 Email: [email protected] Textphone: 0870 240 3701 TSO Shops 16 Arthur Street, Belfast BT1 4GD 028 9023 8451 Fax 028 9023 5401 71 Lothian Road, Edinburgh EH3 9AZ 0870 606 5566 Fax 0870 606 5588 TSO Accredited Agents (see Yellow Pages) and through good booksellers Printed for The Stationery Office by MPG Impressions N5875210 8/008 01-Fiji-Prelims-cpp 10/5/06 6:50 AM Page v Contents page Foreword vii Fiji: Schedule of contents xv Abbreviations xvii Principal holders of offices xxi Chronological table of principal events xxvii Introduction xxxv Notes to Introduction lxxix Summary of documents lxxxvii Documents 1 Biographical Notes 525 Bibliography I: Sources searched at The National Archives 531 Bibliography II: Official publications, unpublished private papers, 533 published documents and secondary sources Index 537 MAP Fiji vi 01-Fiji-Prelims-cpp 10/5/06 6:50 AM Page vi 01-Fiji-Prelims-cpp 10/5/06 6:50 AM Page vii vii Foreword The main purpose of the British Documents on the End of Empire Project (BDEEP) is to publish documents from British official archives on the ending of colonial and associated rule and on the context in which this took place. In 1945, aside from the countries of present-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Burma, Britain had over fifty formal dependencies; by the end of 1965 the total had been almost halved and by 1985 only a handful remained. The ending of Britain’s position in these formal dependencies was paralleled by changes in relations with states in an informal empire. The end of empire in the period at least since 1945 involved a change also in the empire as something that was more than the sum of its parts and as such formed an integral part of Britain’s domestic affairs and international relations. In publishing official British documents on the end of empire this project is, to a degree, the successor to the two earlier series of published documents concerning the end of British rule in India and Burma which were edited by Professors Mansergh and Tinker respectively. The successful completion of The transfer of power and The struggle for independence,1 both of which were based on British records, emphasised the need for similar published collections of documents important to the history of the final stages of Britain’s association with other dependencies in Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, South-East Asia and the Pacific. These documents are crucial research tools for scholars both from sovereign independent states which emerged from colonial rule as well as those from Britain itself. BDEEP is also set in the much wider context of the efforts made by successive British governments to locate Britain’s position in an international order. Here the empire, both in its formal and informal senses, is viewed as an instrument of the domestic, foreign and defence policy of successive British governments. The project is therefore concerned with the ending of colonial rule in individual territories as seen from the British side at one level, and the broader political, economic and strategic considerations involved in that at another. Despite the similarities, however, BDEEP differs in significant ways from its predecessors in terms both of presentation and content. The project is of greater magnitude than that undertaken by Professor Mansergh for India. Four major differences can be identified. First, the ending of colonial rule within a dependent empire took place over a much longer period of time, extending into the final years of the twentieth century while having its roots in the Second World War and before. Secondly, the empire consisted of a large number of territories, varying in area, population, wealth and in many other ways, each with its own individual problems but often with their futures linked to those of neighbouring territories and the 1 Nicholas Mansergh et al, eds, Constitutional relations between Britain and India: the transfer of power 1942-47 12 vols (London, 1970-1983); Hugh Tinker, ed, Constitutional relations between Britain and Burma: the struggle for independence 1944-1948 2 vols (London, 1983-1984). 01-Fiji-Prelims-cpp 10/5/06 6:50 AM Page viii viii FOREWORD growing complexity surrounding the colonial empire. Thirdly, while for India the documentary record for certain matters of high policy could be encapsulated within a relatively straightforward ‘country’ study, in the case of the colonial empire the documentary record is more diffuse because of the plethora of territories and their scattered location. Finally, the documents relating to the ending of colonial rule are not conveniently located within one leading department of state but rather are to be found in several of them. As the purpose of the project is to publish documents relating to the end of empire from the extensive range and quantity of official British records, private collections and other categories of non-official material are not regarded as principal documentary sources. In BDEEP, selections from non-official material will be used only in exceptional cases to fill gaps where they exist in the available official record. In recognition of these differences and also of the fact that the end of empire involves consideration of a range of issues which operated at a much wider level than that normally associated with the ending of colonial rule in a single country, BDEEP is structured in two main series along with a third support series. Series A represents the general volumes in which, for successive British governments, documents relating to the empire as a whole are published. Series B represents the country or territory volumes and provides territorial studies of how, from a British government perspective, former colonies and dependencies achieved their independence and countries which were part of an informal empire regained their autonomy.