INDIAN TRADERS’ GRIP ON FIJI WORRYING WHITES
SYDNEY, Mar. 8. “The growing effect of Indian economic, agricultural and racial domination of Fiji is causing concern among Europeans and Fijians,” said Mr. R. W. Robson, editor of the Pacific Islands Monthly, yesterday. “The Indians in Fiji are getting more and more insistent in their claims for more land, a wider franchise and equality in more ways with Europeans.”
“As the Indian population is growing at a fantastic rate, it is causing growing embarrassment to the British colonial obligations to the Fijians. The Indians now number 125,000 in Fiji and are., steadily encroaching on Suva’s business area. Bloodshed between Indians and Fijians is feared by many residents.” Mr. Robson added that the arrival last year of a special Indian commissioner had been a source of resentment and distrust among Fijians. If the Fijians, the warrior race par excellence of the Pacific, decided that they were not sufficiently protected by the British, the fate of the Indians would be grim indeed.
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Bibliographic details
Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22890, 9 March 1949, Page 7
Word Count
168INDIAN TRADERS’ GRIP ON FIJI WORRYING WHITES Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22890, 9 March 1949, Page 7
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