FIJI LABOUR TROUBLES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17764, 25 April 1921, Page 5

FIJI LABOUR TROUBLES.

SUGAR STRIKERS LIMITED.

DEPORTATION OF LEADER, *

RETURN OF REPATRIATES.

The industrial situation in Fiji was discussed on Saturday by the Colonial Secretary, Mr. T. E. Fell, C.M.G.. who is on a short visit to the Dominion. He said that the Indians in the sugar districts on the north west of Vitilevu and in the Labasa district of Vanualevu were still on strike. The sugar districts of Navua and 3iewa had been unaffected by the strike, and v/ork there, and in Suva and elsewhere in the colony, was at present normal. Everything was quiet in the strike areas, and no disorder was anticipated. The Fijian special constabulary sent to the affected districts had been withdrawn.

The political Isader of the movement, Bashishst Muni, had been deported, and it was hoped that the strikers would now remodel on sensible lines their former demands, which appeared to have been drawn up with a view to rendering any settlement of the strike difficult, if not impossible, and which even formed the subject of ridicule among the Indians themselves. With the departure of Bashishst Muni it was believed that saner counsels will prevail, and that a reasonable basis of discussion between emplovers and employed might be found which, would lead to a settlement of the strike. As to the general labour situation and the present shortage of labour Mr. Fell said Fiji doubtless had serious problems to face. It was hoped and believed that a satisfactory solution would be found to them. In his inaugural address to the Legislative Council on April 8 His Excellency the Governor had announced that it was practically certain that a deputation from India would visit Fiji during the next few months to study conditions 'affecting Indians in the colony, and to consider the possibility of renewed immigration from India. The Government of India also had withdrawn, under certain conditions, the embargo on assisted passages being granted to' repatriates from Fiji, who, greatly dissatisfied with the- conditions found in India, desired to return to Fiji. " Some hundreds would return by the s.s. Ganges at the end of this month, and many more were likely to follow. Mr. Fell said he knew nothing of the rumour, published in the Herald on Saturday, that the strike would spread to Suva and Nausori on the arrival of the Ganges. On the contrary, he believed that the return of repatriates who have been dissatisfied with conditions in India, should tend toward a settling effect on the local population. With regard to the published statement that trouble had occurred on the Suva wharf, Mr. Fell said he was aware that Fijian wharf labourers had asked their employers for some increase of wages, but up to the time of leaving Suva no strike nor lock-out had been declared, and work had not been seriously interrupted in any way. The desire of Indians to return to India had not been so marked lately as in the past year, and some 40 per cent, of those booked to return by the last emigrant ship >did not appear to claim their passages, their places being hurriedly filled from others on the waiting list. Fiji, in common with other countries of he world, was passing through a period of industrial unrest, but, with the exercise of. a little patience, the problems affecting the colony appeared to be by no means insoluble.