The Western Pacific Archive: Introduction to the Documents by FCDO Historians

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Foreign & Commonwealth Office

The Western Pacific Archive Introduction to the Documents

Published by FeO Historians to commemorate the transfer of the Western Pacific Archive from the United Kingdom to the University ofAuckland, New Zealand, 9th October 2002. Front cover: Photograph of Tulagi, seat of government of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, before the Second World War. Above right: the flag. of the We tern Pacific High Commissioner (1905-53),' the British olomon 1 land Protectorate (BSIP) (c.J906-1947),路 the Gilbert & Ellice Island Colony (GEIC) (1937-1969); the New Hebride Condominium (British administration) (1906-1980); Pitcairn (19 4-); and the Kingdom of Tonga (1875-).

FOREWORD Much of the value of an archive lies in the use that can be made of it. The FCO's transfer of the Western Pacific Archive and associated collections to the University of Auckland is designed to make this historic archive more readily available for researchers in the region to use and enjoy, The WP A comprises a rich and diverse collection, encompassing the full range of cultural, social, political and economic issues and capturing a century's worth of the life, times and government of the Western Pacific Islanders through records, photographs, maps and other memorabilia. By returning this archive to the Pacific region, the FCO is returning part of the region's history. This transfer also marks a successful end to several years of negotiation and review effort. Acknowledgements are due to all those in the UIZ and the South Pacific region, too numerous to list, who have worked hard to facilitate the Archive's return. Special thanks are due to the University of Auckland, the major regional centre for South Pacific studies and a most appropriate custodian for this unique collection. Under their protection the Western Pacific Archive can fulfil its proper role in facilitating the study of the region and its past. To commemorate the return of the WPA, FCO Historians have reproduced a selection of its documents in their latest publication, The Western Pacific Archive: Selected Documents. They have also produced this 'abridged' version, comprising an introduction to the history of the' Western Pacific High Commission and archive, as well as a summary list of the selected documents. The documents themselves, however, are not included here. The Western Pacific Archive: Selected Documents will be available on-line later this year [www.fco.gov.uk].Inthemeantime.alimited number of hard copies are available by contacting:

FCO Historians Foreign and Commonwealth Office Records & llistorical Department Old Admiralty Building London SW1..A. 2PA

Heather Yasamee Records and Historical Department Foreign and Commonwealth Office October 2002

INTRODUCTION (The records form.. . an entire and integrated whole. As such, not only must they be invaluable and of prime interest to the Governments of the region, but they also constitute by far the most important depository of historical and other information in the entire Pacific region, covering as they do the major part of the South Seas inhabited by a wide variety of Polynesians, Micronesians and Melanesians. To historians, anthropologists, political scientists, demographers and other social scientists the value of the documentation they contain is incalculable... '

Bruce T. Burne, Archivist of the Western Pacific Archive, 1976

The Western Pacific High Commission The British Empire came late to the Western Pacific islands. Before the establishment of the Western Pacific High Commission (WPHC) in 1877 British influences in the region stemmed, not from the formal apparatus of empire, but from local missionaries and traders, operating independendy of British governmental control. This suited those in Whitehall who - ironically perhaps in this age of empire - balked at the prospect of assuming further territorial responsibilities, and the increased costs to the exchequer which accompanied them. If the worst excesses of British merchantmen could be moderated by Australian courts of law, and regional stability guaranteed by the guns of the Royal Navy, there seemed every hope that the indigenous peoples of the Western Pacific would, of their own accord, develop institutions which could meet the challenges of the imperial age, embrace European Christian culture, and - not least - protect British commercial interests. But the continued growth of European penetration into the Pacific made this an unrealistic aspiration. The despoiling of Fiji by European (mainly British) merchants had demonstrated the fragility of indigenous socio-political structures when exposed to the relendess pressure of European economic expansion, and had precipitated Fiji's annexation by Great Britain in 1875. Fiji's problems epitomised the stresses which increased commercial activities in the Pacific placed across the region, activities which vexed the British government, not only because of their potential to complicate cordial relations with other Powers active in the area, but also because of genuine disquiet over the dubious activities of British' nationals. The practice of 'blackbirding' - a neo-slave trade which saw merchantmen-cum-kidnappers abduct islanders as labourers for the newlyestablished plantations - was but one such example of the unscrupulous behaviour in the pursuit of profit which the British government were detennined to stamp out. v

Though the annexation of Fiji may be regarded as a consequence of the failure to insulate sufficiendy that island from destabilising European influences, HMG nevertheless remained detennined to create in the Western Pacific an environment which would foster the three 'C's - Christianity, commerce and civilisation - but -~--- without the need for territorial further acquisitions. Herein lay the origins of the WPHC. Established by an Order in Council in 1877, the Governor of Fiji was made High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, with of vested powers authority over British subjects throughout regton and, the crucially, over a C19th licence to collect Guano number of Pacific islands which lay outside Her Majesty's dominions. The WPHC, as originally envisaged, fell well short of formal empire: under the Order in Council, the independence of the myriad island territories, and the positions of their Chiefs and Kings, was explicitly recognised. Whether such an arrangement could really have provided the islanders with adequate protection against the more exploitative elements of European commercialism is doubtful, but this informal exercise of British control was, in any case, ended by developments in another part of the world. The Berlin Congress of 1884-85, convened to settle outstanding differences between the European Powers in West and Central Africa, had prescribed the physical occupation by a Power as one of the defining criterion for the international recognition of its sphere of interest. The WPHC system of infonnal Pax Britannica could not survive the ensuing 'scramble for Oceania', as London was compelled to stake out fonnal claims to hitherto semi-independent territories, if only to thwart rival Powers' ambitions. Fonnal protectorates, for example, were declared over the Gilbert and Ellice Islands in 1892 and the Solomon Islands a year later. This partition of the region by the colonial Powers also led to the redefinition of the High Commissioner's bailiwick. In 1893 a Pacific Order in Council vested additional executive and legislative powers in the High Commissioner, but in respect of a more limited area - those territories by then under British control (by 1900 these comprised: the Solomon Islands; the Gilbert and Ellice Islands; the New Hebrides (from 1904 in condominium with France); Tonga; and Pitcairn). The 1893 Order VI

The building housing the 'Central Archives of Fiji and the Western Pacific', Suva, c.1950s

was framed for a wide scatter of island territories in which only the most rudimentary fonn of administration was practicable, but it was not substantially altered for almost seventy years. For the first seventy years of its one hundred and one years' existence, the Office of the High Commissioner was located in Suva, Fiji, with the posts of High Commissioner and Governor of Fiji held conjointlyl. In 1952, however, the posts of Western Pacific High Commissioner and Governor of Fiji were separated, and the headquarters of the WPHC was transferred to Honiara (where the High Commissioner became concurrently Governor of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate (BSIP), though the Governor of Fiji kept responsibility for Tonga and Pitcairn). In 1970 Fiji and Tonga became independent, and Pitcairn was transferred to the UI< High Commissioner in Wellington. With progress towards greater self-government, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony (GEIC) was removed from the jurisdiction of the High Commission in 1972; the New Hebrides left the following year; and the Solomon Islands, the only remaining territory within the WPHC achieved internal self-government in 1976 and independence two years later. Divested of its last remaining territories, the commission of the WPHC finally expired on 11 July 1978. 2

1 Except for a brief period from 1880-82 when Sir Arthur Gordon combined the position of High Commissioner with the Governorship of New Zealand. 2 In fact there is some confusion surrounding the date at which the Western Pacific High Commission formally expired. Some sources suggest 1974 or 1976, but it seems that though most of the territorial responsibilities of the High Commissioner had been hived off before 1978, the Governor of the Solomon VB

Introduction to the Documents The Western Pacific Archive (WPA) is a fascinating and unique collection of documents. Spanning over a century of history, the rchive provides a catholic and eclectic record of Britain's involvement in the south-west Pacific, covering the social, political, economic, military, diplomatic, judicial and administrative aspects of the Western Pacific High Commission's business and the territories under its jurisdiction. The fifty-odd documents reproduced in this publication represent, of course, but the tiniest of just one fraction collection from the WP A albeit perhaps the most significant: the records of the Western Pacific High Post-mortem report on the body of a skeleton found in Kiribati, 1941, initially thought to have been that of the

Commission itself. s such, aviator Amelia Earhart this small selection provides, not a comprehensive documentary history of the WPHC, but rather a series of snapshots of the region and some of the issues which the High Commission faced at various times in its history. The first part of this collection, covering the period up to the outbreak of the First World War, reflects the original role of the WPHC as arbitrator between the local indigenous islanders and the British merchantmen operating in the area, with the Royal Navy acting as the executive instrument of British rule (not so much gunboat diplomacy as gunboat justice). In exercising this power, the WPHC was always mindful of its moral mandate to protect the Pacific islanders (and the susceptibilities of Victorian England's non-conformist conscience), and it would do little to assist those British nationals who were deemed to have behaved in an unscrupulous manner undeserving of British support. Indeed, the official aversion towards such colonialist ventures as the Australasian Colonization Company, and concerns over labour migration demonstrated a continued commitment to protect the interests of the local peoples and prevent their unreasonable exploitation by avaricious traders. The close of the nineteenth century heralded structural changes in the WPHC. These stemmed from the provisions of the 1893 Order in Council, which greatly Islands retained the nominal tide of Westem Pacific High Commissioner, both to administer the ~h Court of the Western Pacific and to advise on the disposal of the WPA itself. Vlll

extended the responsibilities and involvement of the High Commissioner in the domestic affairs of the islands. Fiscal systems were created to provide revenue for administration, the sale of alcohol licensed, land transactions regulated and labour migration controlled. Though effective control of the WPHC, as a political entity, was always hampered by geographical distance and poor communications, a growing network of Resident Commissioners and their assistants ensured an increasingly effective British influence over the islands of the High Commission. But this period was also coloured by growing imperial tensions between the Great Powers, as infonnal empire gave way to recognised spheres of influence in the Pacific. The conclusion of an Anglo-Gennan agreement over the future of Samoa failed, however, to calm other related AngloGennan colonial disputes, particularly over trade, whilst military tensions in Europe, inevitably perhaps, spilt over into the Pacific. Detailed plans were drawn up by HMG's Committee of Imperial Defence for the protection of the WPHC ..

regt.on 111 a major war against Gennany, though, as British attempts to militarise Fanning Island demonstrated, such plans did not always realise themselves quite as envisaged. Plans for a 'condominium' prison, New Hebrides

Part II of these documents is, not surprisingly, dominated by the two world wars which punctuated the twentieth century. The outbreak of the Great War in 1914 did not touch the lives of the people within the WPHC gready. Apart from early raids by German warships, the direct impact of the war was minimal. Geographical separation from the cockpit of the conflict bred a mental distance too, so much so that Gennan businesses on the island of Tonga were able, for example, at least for the first half of the war, to operate without molestation from British authorities. Of much greater impact on the region was, not the war in Europe, but the pandemic outbreak of influenza which shortly followed, killing as many as twenty per cent of the native population of Tonga. The interwar years saw the beginnings of the construction of a modem infrastructure for the WPHC territories. Revenue and expenditure, for example, increased four-fold in the olomon Islands over the ten year period of 1911-21. This investment allowed the construction of modem (if rather basic) schools, IX

hospitals and law courts, and the employment of accompanying personnel. Though the comparative proliferation of Medical and Judicial Officers across the WPHC represented at least a step in the direction of modernity, however, there remained much room for further improvements. European settlers, for example, were not always content that the development of island facilities reflected the taxes they paid. In the matter of public health, diseases such as yaws, hookworm and leprosy remained prevalent, whilst sanitation and public hygiene issues required further attention. And although the establishment of a network of courts of law permitted the better execution of British justice than had been possible hitherto, traditional (though by no means monolithic) native customs retained a significant role in the regulation of island societies - as the differing attitudes to the question of adultery in the Solomon Islands, for example, amply demonstrated. If the First World War had remained a mostly distant conflict, the second of the century's total wars proved, quite literally, rather closer to home. The collapse of two of the western Pacific's major Powers - the Netherlands and France - was significant enough. But the Japanese southern offensive, following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, brought the Gilbert and the Solomon islands directly into the front line, as their respective capitals (Ocean Island and Tulagi) fell to the advancing Japanese And though the army. ~~============~~~I imperial forces of Japan Architects' drawings of low cost housing proposed for the were soon evicted from WPH territories their newly acquired islands, they were removed by American, not British, forces. The damage to British prestige caused by the initial capitulation, and its possible consequences for the position of the WPHC, were serious enough. But just as difficult as the Japanese invasion was the fact of the American liberation. Throughout the 1930s the American government had laid claim to various islands in the Pacific region, and their occupation of some of these islands now - albeit as allies in a global war against the xis Powers - caused nervousness amongst some British officials, but particularly within the Dominions. New Zealand's reluctance, for example, to agree to a symbolic cession to Washington of the island of Betio, scene of intense fighting between Japanese and US forces, was borne of just these fears. But the rise of American predominance in the Western Pacific was a development impossible to counter, and one to which both Britain and her Dominions were obliged to accommodate themselves. The

The Central Archive of Fiji and the We tern Pacific " Suva, c.1950s

signature of the ZU treaty in 1951 and which cut right through the High the Dominions, at least, had done just A ZUS was the harbinger, if not

- to which the UI<. was not a signatory, Commissioner's parish - suggested that that. For many in Britain, though, indeed the beginning, of imperial retreat.

The final part of this collection begins with the debate over war damage claims for the Gilbert and Solomon islands, and the difficulties that HMG (itself in a state of penury) experienced in devising a fair system for compensation. Though a number of schemes were initiated for the economic rehabilitation of the territories as a whole, including the 1947 ten-year plan for the reconstruction and developm nt of the GEIC and B IP, the decision not to pay compensation to specific individuals caused considerable dismay at the time. With economic development came a growing political consciousness amongst the native inhabitants of the WPHC territories which the British monitored carefully. Disquiet at the activities of 'cargo cults', such as the Marching Rule movement, were supplanted, with the onset of the Cold War, by concerns over the possible emergence of Communi m within the territories. Significant changes, social and economic, began to sweep the territories of the WPHC in the two decades following the end of the war. Improved Xl

communications, better education and healthcare provision and relative economic prosperity all contributed to a sea-change in attitudes within the region. As oudooks became less insular, hitherto introspective islands began to develop, more so than ever before, a sense of political identity. Coupled with the administrative challenges that greater modernity brought, and which made effective management by the High Commission of its disparate territories more difficult, the WPHC came to be regarded, even by British officials which served it, as a bureaucratic impediment at best and increasingly anachronistic, both in respect of the islanders' wishes for greater independence and in the provision of efficient government for the region.

The Western Pacific Archive The history of the Western Pacific Archive itself is in many ways no less interesting than - and indeed is inextricably intertwined with - that of the region which it documents. When the WPHC moved to Honiara in 1952 the earlier (pre-1920) records remained in Suva, where they were administered as part of the newly created 'Central Archives of Fiji and the Western Pacific'. Over the next few years subsequent accumulations of records were transferred from the various High Commission territories to these Central Archives, which developed into a considerable archival institution, providing a service to Pacific scholars as well as to the various administrations. With the independence of Fiji in 1970, however, the Fijian records were transferred to the new government and the Central Archives were dissolved. The remaining collections formed the newly established Western Pacific Archive. 3 Fijian independence also meant that the WPA was no longer located on British administered territory. No fmn and binding agreement had been made with the Government of Fiji over the status and immunity of the Archive, whilst the impending demise of the WPHC led again to further consideration of the disposal of the WPA. In particular two separate, but related, questions needed to be addressed. First, should the collections of the WP A be split-up or held together? Second, if the WPA was to remain together, should it be deposited locally within the region or returned to the UK? Few in London disagreed that ultimately the territorial records of the WP A should be handed over to the successor governments, though practicalities made this difficult (the newly-independent territories generally lacked the facilities, expertise and resources necessary to house and maintain their territorial collections). Less straight-forward, however, was the future of the records of the High Commission itself. The WPHC collection comprised files relating to all the territories of the In addition to the @es of the High Commission itself, the Western Pacific Archive in 1970 also comprised the territorial records of New Hebrides British Service (NHBS) , the British Solomon Islands Protectorate (BSIP); the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony (GEl C); the British Agent ~ater Commissioner)and Consul Tonga (BC'!); and Pitcairn (pIJ). 3

High Commission (indeed for the GEIC and BSIP, the WPHC flies contain valuable copies of all correspondence between the High Commission and the two Resident Commissioners for the period 1877-1941, the Resident Commissioners' records having almost totally perished during the Japanese invasion and occupation of 1941-42). But to break up the WPHC collection - which would have entailed disentangling the multi-addressee correspondence as well as the dismembering of many of the bound volumes - would have been both impractical and, in the words of the then archivist, Bruce Burne, 'little short of a tragedy'. This reluctance to break up the High Commission files, coupled with the inability of the successor Western Pacific governments to take possession of their own territorial records ensured the continued integrity of the WPA, at least for the present. But where should the WP A reside? Burne was fmnly of the opinion that the WP A collections should remain within the region, where the greatest academic interest lay. He favoured placing them with the Commonwealth Archives of Australia, which had offered to accommodate the records free of charge. But a contrary view was expressed by the Chief Secretary of the WPHC, who argued that the 'WPHC archives' should be accepted as the property of HMG, as the history was essentially that of a British administration, covering several 1_ territories, at a historical stage when local participation was minimal. He thought that, while one might expect criticism from scholars who had come to regard their academic convenience and freedom of access as the main purpose of the collection, the prior right must be seen as that of sovereign governments to control their own official and public records. The Archive did not obviously belong to one group of islands, he noted, and it would be safer in the UIZ. The FCO agreed. Aside from the sensitivity problems of depositing the archive in another One oj the jour and half racks 'which country, where it might be difficult to enforce hOllsed the WPA during its time at the statutory closure period or protect Hans/ope Park, UK sensitive material germane to current issues, they took the view that the WPHC collection were UK public records, as defined by the Public Records Act, and that any decision to keep the records outside of the UK would be most unusual and require the special approval 0 f the Lord Chancellor.

Xlll

The WPA finally closed on 20 ovember 1978. The surviving territorial records of the BSIP were transferred to Honiara, and those of the GEIC split between Kiribati and Tuvalu. The remaining collections - relating to Tonga, Pitcairn, the ew Hebrides and, of course, the files of the WPHC itself - were transferred to the UI<'. This arrangement was not met without criticism. Burne, for one, was furious. He had advocated that the WPA should be kept together, remain in the region, and that territorial collections should only be returned to governments once there was adequate provision for their storage and maintenance. He condemned in the strongest terms the decision to split the rchive. Greatest criticism, however, centred on the decision to repatriate the WPHC collection to the UK. Representations were made by the University of the South Pacific, the Australian ociety of Archivists, the Society of Archivists in the UI<. and the ational Library and Archive of Kiribati, all of whom pressed, at the very least, for microfilm copies of the WPHC collection to be made available locally. Pressure from the archivists was joined by the newly-independent governments themselves. The Solomon Islands Governmen t in particular lobbied London, with the support of the governments of Vanuatu, Packing up the WPA in preparation/or transfer, July 2002 I<iribati, Tuvalu and Tonga, for the transfer of the WPHC collection to their newly completed Solomons ational Archives building. In principle, the FCO had no objection to the return of the WPHC collection to the region, provided the UI('s Public Record Office (PRO) and the Lord Chancellor agreed. Rather, it was the practicalities that made such a transfer difficult. Before the WPA could be made available to the public - either in the Pacific or at the PRO - it would have to be reviewed, like all government records, for sensitivity. And the size of the WP - over 1,500 feet of shelf-space - meant that, without considerably greater resources, the review would have to be a long-term project. Moreover, given that the WPHC records are British public records, the Lord Chancellor and the FCO had to be satisfied that, if the records were to be stored outside the UI<., suitable archival accommodation could be arranged. The archive, housed for so long in the Pacific in conditions which were basic at best, contains papers (some 125 years or more old) which are quite badly damaged. Notwithstanding the improved conditions in which the xiv

Bound volumes of WPA d

Cllnlents

in their original '!!'tate and after re toration

archive was stored at Hanslope, and a programme of repair and rebinding for some of the worst affected volumes, much of the WPA remained in an extremely fragile state, and it was important to be confident that any future host would continue to protect the archive and make proper provision for its management and maintenance. Despite these problems, the FCa remained detennined to house the archive where it would be of greatest benefit to interested researchers, and by 2002 the practical difficulties which had hitherto held up transfer had been resolved. fter consideration of various options, agreement was reached with the interested governments to present the WP to the University of uckland. nd so, in July of that year, the archive was once again put into crates for its return journey across the high seas back to the Western Pacific Ocean, to the region from where it originally sprang. Though the WPHC survives only in the pages of history, its archive remains, not only as an invaluable record of a unique period in the development of the region but also as a testament to those peoples - indigenous, settlers and administrators alike - who collectively made up the humanity of the Western Pacific. It is their story which this archive tells and which, in the careful custody of the University of Auckland, it will continue to tell for many generations to come.

Alec Ibbott M. . . Longden Records and Historical Department, July 2002 xv

HEWESTE PAC F CA CH VE Selected Documents from the Western Pacific High Commission Collection

DOCUMENT SUMMARIES Part I: The Age of Empires, 1877-1913 la

Letter from the Chief of Funafuti to the British Governor of Fiji, 21st September, 1877, on his conflict with Mr. Thompson, a British trader, and his fears about the intervention of a British ship-of-war.

Letter from Commodore Hoskins, 7th May, 1878, noting that Mr. Thompson's complain ts were 'trivial and unfounded' and offering to remove him from the island.

Letter from Sir Arthur Gordon, Melbourne, to the Acting High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, 17th July, 1878, on the 'objectionable' activities of the Australasian Colonization Company.

Copy of a prospectus of the Australasian Colonization Company, enclosed with the letter above.

Remarks on the Labour Traffic, Etc., By Commander W Dyke Acland, &yal Na1!)', 20th October, 1884.

Petition to Queen Victoria by the King and Chiefs of Samoa, 5th November, 1884, inviting British forces to take possession of the kingdom.

Report of the attack on the crew of the schooner 'Saucy Lass' by natives of Manawai, Solomon Islands., 15th June, 1888.

Letter from the Bishop of Tasmania on the conditions surrounding the recruiting of native labour in the New Hebrides and Solomon Islands, 14th November 1892.

Queen's Regulation for the better administration of government within the Gilbert Group, 1893.

Letter from Mr. Reid, a British trader, complaining of a 'mutiny' by his native labourers at Fanning Island, 16th April 1896.

Convention and Declaration between Great Britain and Gennany, 14th November, 1899, for the settlement of the Samoan and other questions.

Letter from the British Resident Commissioner, Solomon Islands, 26th December, 1904, on colonial tensions and trade disputes with Germany.

l1a

King's Regulation to establish a volunteer reserve for the defence of Fanning Island Cable Station, 1905.

lIb

Letter from Alfred Smith, Deputy Commissioner Fanning Island, on the difficulties of recruiting such a reserve, 11 th August, 1905.

Letter from 'Bums, Philp & Co.', Australian merchants, 6th July, 1908, on the rearrangement of steamer services to the Western Pacific area.

Letter from W. Telfer Campbell, British Agent in Tonga, on his influence and interventions in Tongan domestic affairs, 19th September, 1911.

Western Pacific Defence Scheme: 1913, remarks by the Oversea Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence, 8th August, 1913.

Part II: In An Era of World Wars, 1914-1944 15

Telegrams on the Gennan capture of Fanning Island cable station, 8th September, 1914.

Letter from the Governor-General, Australia, 1st February, 1916, enclosing an article from the Sydney Dai!J Telegraph on Gennan commercial activities in Tonga.

Letter from the High Commissioner to HBMs Agent and Consul in Tonga, 10th March 1916, enclosing coded telegram from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, on German economic interests in Tonga, 8th March, 1916.

18a

Draft despatch from the High Commissioner, 8th January, 1919, on the influenza epidemic in Tonga.

1Sb

Resolution passed by the Privy Council of Tonga, commending the actions of the British Agent, Islay McOwan, during the influenza outbreak, 18th December 1918.

19a

Letter from the Resident Commissioner, Solomon Islands, 13th July 1923, commenting upon a petition against conditions on the islands.

19b

The Humble Petition of the Settlers of the British Solomon Islands, enclosed with the letter above.

Annual report on duties performed by HBM Agent, Tonga, 22nd April, 1926.

Letter from Resident, Commissioner, Solomon Islands, 22nd October, 1930, detailing traditional punishments for adultery according to each island.

Letter from the Acting Resident Commissioner, New Hebrides, 13th February, 1931, on labour recruitment.

Report on the medical requirements of the Western Pacific High Commission area, 31st March, 1931.

Letter from the Resident Commissioner, Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, 15th January, 1934, reporting on his tour of the islands.

Letter from the Resident Commissioner, Solomon Islands, on the undesirability of Japanese immigration, 17th January, 1938.

26a

Letter from the Resident Commissioner, New Hebrides, 2nd December, 1939, on the recent eruption of Lopevi.

26b

Letter from the Rev. Frater, 6th November, 1939, reporting details of the volcanic eruption, enclosed in the above letter.

Letter from the Resident Commissioner, Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, 18th January, 1940, enclosing a return of cases tried in the High Commissioner's Court in Ocean Island during 1939.

Telegram from the Western Pacific High Commissioner, 29th June, 1940, on the fall of France.

Telegram announcing outbreak of hostilities with Japan, 8th December, 1941.

Extract from an address by the Governor of Fiji to the Legislative Council, 9th December 1941.

Extract from the war diary of Major F.G.L. Holland, August-November 1943, recounting the liberation of Betio, Gilbert Islands.

32a

Telegram from the New Zealand Department of External Affairs, 31st December, 1943, 'o n the undesirability of ceding Betio or Tawara to the United States.

32 b Telegram from the Western Pacific High Commissioner, supporting the proposal for the cessation of Betio, 4th January, 1944.

Part III: Reconstruction, Modernity and Retreat, 1947-1970 33a

Western Pacific High Commission Gazette, 9th September, 1947, on war damage claims.

33b

Letter from the Western Pacific High Commissioner to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 11 th June, 1948, on claims for war damage.

33c

Letter from the Secretary of State, 24th November, 1948, providing guidance on the principles of compensation.

Memorandum by the Chief-Secretary, WHPC, on the administration of the Western Pacific High Commission, 4th May, 1948.

Despatch to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 30th June, 1949, on the future administration of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate.

Letter to Chief of the Naval Staff, Wellington, 6th March, 1951, expressing concerns about the inclusion of Tonga in the United States' region of the ANZAM area.

37a

Telegram from Resident Commissioner, Solomon Islands, on the organisation of a local volunteer reserve, 29th February, 1952.

37b

Letter to the Acting Chief Secretary, WPHC, clarifying the volunteer reserve scheme, 21stAp~ 1952.

Despatch to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 3rd June, 1952, commenting on the first five years of the 1947 Ten-Year Plan for the 'Reconstruction, Development and Welfare' of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony and the British Solomon Islands Protectorate.

Letter from the Western Pacific High Commissioner, 6th July, 1953, reporting the celebrations for the Coronation of Her Majesty the Queen.

Telegram from the Resident Commissioner, Tarawa, assessing the political situation in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands and the threat of Communism, 22nd July, 1955.

Despatch by the Western Pacific High Commissioner, 9th August, 1958, enclosing a report on political and racial consciousness in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate.

42a

Comments on the Liquor Bill, 3rd-9th November, 1961.

42b

Letter from the International Commission for the Prevention of Alcoholism, 5th March, 1962, on the practicalities of an alcohol education campaign.

43a

Telegram to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 17th February, 1965, outlining the application of the death penalty across the Western Pacific High Commission and suggesting possible reactions to its abolition.

43b

Paper for the British Solomon Islands Protectorate Executive Council, 'Abolition of Death Penalty for Murder and Other Offences', 7th February, 1966.

Letter from the Resident Commissioner, New Hebrides, 31st January, 1969, on the future of the Western Pacific High Commission.

Letter from the Western Pacific High Commissioner, 27th February, 1970, enclosing a 'N ote on the Western Pacific High Commission in Relation to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony'.