The Washington times., 1917-04-13
JI'SDEVELOPMENT
CREATES PROBLEMS
Islands, Long Rid of cannibals,
Hope to Join British Fed
Grafton After War.

SYDNEY, Australia, March 20 (by
maiD.-It is charitable to assume that
leading American newspapers do not
believe all that they have printed
within the last few months about the
Fiji Islands and Col. and Mrs. Theo-
dore Roosevelt's projected visit to
that South Pacific group. These pa
pers may have been teasing the
Colonel for the benefit of their read
ers, but some of their comments read
suspiciously as If those who penned
them thought that the ex-President
and his wife would have been sur
rounded by cannibals directly they
landed in Suva.
1t is a pity to take the edge off
such gorgeous "copy"-if 1t was in
tended for the truth-but as a plain
matter of fact, Fiji is about as savage
as Oyster Bay, and, aside from its
tropical setting and certain problems
of race and empire, 1t is as prosaic q
spot as there is on the earth's surface.
Its man-sating days ended years ago;
It has played a not inglorious part in
the current war, and IL looks forward
to being, IL not the center, at least a
member of q British Pacific island
federation after the war. The only
cannibals now in Fiji are microscopic
ones.
Excited German CupIdIty.
Few Americans know that it was
indirectly American action which
threw Fill into the unwilling arms of
Great Britain, or that Fiji excited
German cupidity before Germany had
embarked upon a colonial policy.
Forty-odd years ago the persistent
activity of German firms and business
men in the group caused the British
residents to assail the authorities in
London with petitions, and this fear
Of German annexation reached a eli
max in 1872, when a German warship
appeared in the islands. From that
time until the Union Jack was hoisted
over Fiji, in. 1874, there was no ces-
sation of the efforts to move Down
ing street.
Although it was an Australian firm
which eventually forced the British
governments hands, the spring of this
action was American claims against
the Fijians. In 1860 a Colonel Smyth
was sent out to Fill by the British
government to investigate an offer of
the group to Great Britain by Tha-
kombau, q noted chieftain, stories OF
whose savage regime are still rife in
Australia Colonel Smyth reported
against annexation at that stage,
principally because he found that
Thakombau could not carry out the
terms of his offer. He was not king
Of the group, although he aspired to
that eminence. He was only the "war
king" of Mbau, q small island in the
group.
ThakOmbau Not EnthF0ned.
The roko tut, or reverenced king,
Thskombau, was never allowed to be
formally installed in office, yet even
after much fighting and successful
displays OF strength he remained one
among equals, and there were other
chiefs in the archipelago who could
fairly claim to be his peers by might
as well as by right.
However, Colonel Snyth's report
which among Americans may recall
Paramount" Blount's mission In Ha-
wall for President Cleveland and the
American part in the history OF Samoa
was a great advertisemtn for Fiji.
In consequence of Thakombau's hank
ering to clear himself of entangle-
ments arising from claims for COM
pensation by aggrieved Americans.
he had offered the group to Britain,
but this led to the formation of an
Australian company to exploit the sit
uation. In consideration for paying
Thakombau's debt to the United
States, amounting to $4,000. the COM
pany was to receive from the chief a
grant of 100000 acres of what was
heralded as the best land in the
group.
By this time the civil war in the
United States had resulted in the
blockade OF Confederate ports, and
there was a cotton famine. The COM
pany, which was a Melbourne one,
saw golden opportunity and
straightway doomed FIJI as a place
for growing cotton. There was a
rush of investors to the concern and
an influx into Fiji OF whites, who
expected to pile up fortunes by culti-
waiting the staple. While some of the
finest cotton in the world can be
grown in Fiji, harvest time unfortu-
nately comedies with the hurricane
season, and many a cotton field white
with almost realized wealth on one
day was a wreck the next day. Still
some plantations escaped and the cot
ton from them realized good prices.
But when the civil war had ended
and the United States was rehabili-
tating itself Fiji found itself in diff
culties. Competition in cotton grew
too sharp, since negro labor was far
cheaper in the Southern United
States than in Fill, and then, as now,
the South Sea islander was not keen
on work of any sort. Fiji as place /
for whites fell on evil days; the Mel
bourne company failed and many
persons interested in II were ruined;
Thakombau himself was a victim of
the white mans plausibilty, and a
Sydney adventurer who had gathered
about him others Of the same des- |
cription carried on a farcial govern
ment in the group.
This was between 1870 and 1874,
with German wishfulness for the
group fast growing stronger, and