FIJI'S LABOUR TROUBLES.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 72, 26 March 1921, Page 11

FIJI'S LABOUR TROUBLES.

(From Our Own Correspondent. ) i ] LONDON", February 10. ■ i The Trade Supplement of the London '"Times" of February o gives what it asserts to be the rlrbt detailed account ;to appear in England of the uniortunatv? 1 state of affairs wioli ha.s developed in Fiji during the past year. This atate- ; ment declares that the events during j that period have created a moat unfortuI nate impression in India, and, taien in ! conjunction with the grievances oi I India in Ea*t Africa and elsewhere, have ! done a {Treat deal to destroy the possiI bility of any colony which may wish to ! attract Indian labour succeeding in it« j desire. It; is not unlikely, it continues, j that the hitch in the negotiations with j regard to the proposed visit of an Indian I Commission to British Guiana to examine the prospects for Indian immigrants in that colony may be tracpd to the recent occurrences in Fiji. Apparently half the Indians, it say*, now resdent in the Pacific cokray have asked to be repatriated, and the supar planter? are now looking to China for labourer?, a oourie which will certajnlv not be I viewed with favour or even tolerance in i Australia and New Zealand. At this distance, it concludes, it ie difficult to form «n a.beolute!ly accurate opinion as to the responsibility for the events which culminated in the use <*f firearms against the Indian strikers, but we are entitled to resent the veil of offio.ia! j secrecy -with which the troubles in FTji j have "been almost completely hidden j from the people in this country >