FIJI LABOUR TROUBLES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17874, 3 March 1920, Page 8

FIJI LABOUR TROUBLES

CLASHES WITH INDIANS. TROOPS DISPENSE: MOBS. MANY AIUIBSTS MADE. JjIFE UNDER MARTIAL LAW. (P'nou OUB Oivs ' SUVA (FIJI), February 17. Suva is practically under martial law. There is no one left in the huge Btores but tho owners and a girl or two. Business has practically stopped. Everybody ia a spocial constable. Thero is mild excitement in the air, and nervous people shut their doors at night. . ' Taking a stroll after dark through eomo of our pretty hilly roads in the suburbs, ono is either bailed up -at every corner by a sentry's ' Who goes there?" or a patrol of four or six bright young lads armed with clubs pass breezily by. The Gentries have loaded rifles and glistening bayonets, and on the Victoria Parade lights gleam everywhere. From tho City Hall oomo tho strains of a grama.phono and tho hum of song by a boy from Miaorilond, for we havo the Now Zealand Government vessel ! in the. bay, the Tutanekai, and she has disembarked GO artillerymen and six Lewis gnhs, and she carries heavier artillery for .an emergency. • Further along the Boys' Grammar School hums with bußtle. It is headquarters. Hero Colonel Hall ia officer commanding, end a dozen motor cars and motor wagons are "parked" in front. Sometimes tho telephone linos hum, and lads in khaki oome pouring out, anil in five minutes 20, 30, 40 are off three, live, eight miles out like a flash. Sometimes a machine gun flashes after tho squad. There is an Indian "strike" on. It is nominally a demand for more money. It is really a war against white rule, fomented! by » clever rascal from India, who has boon working np tho agitation for years. The Indians out the telephone wires to Eiowa, so a wireless apparatus sparks on tho roof of the school, while another has been installed at Nausori, on the Rowa River, whore the C.S.R. Company's mill is. DEFENCE FORCE MOBH/SED.

Three or four hundred Fijiama have been brought in from outlying islands, and oro being hastily drilled, and there are nearly 100 white special constables. The defence force has been mobilised, and besides the two native platoons there aro two or three moro of whites and half-oastes.

The Government eoroo time ago disbanded the country rifto clubs, and withdrew rifles and ammunition. Now they have dee patched a supply for the few whites at cotmtry centres where the Indians are numerous.

That is how matters stand, and yesterday the sloop of war (mine-sweeper) Marguerite arrived from Australia with more help. The Indian leaders acknowledge that advantage was taken .of the engineers' strike in Australia. Thore have been a few collisions, but clubs havo qutetoned the mobs, and some 200 Indians have been arrested. No resort has so far been, made to firearms ' HISTORY OF THE TEUUBLE.

Tho Indiana, mostly of the lowest and most ignorant type, cams here under indenture for five years, with a further five yeara' free residence. Most of them, however, stayed on, and to-day tho Indian community is a really well-to-do comfortaible crowd. The few thousands etill under indenture were released of their agreements on January 3. The planters need more labour, and "a mission "'ia in India trying to induce further emigration. To further placato the Indians who msde many demands at a. meeting in Suva on Boxing Day, the Government further agreed to two Indian members on the Legislative Council. to be elected by tho Indiana. Wages for common Indian labour ran from 2s to 2s 6d a day. The Indian leaders fcillred of ss,and even more. No demand was made on the employers, however, and without warning the Indians stopped work in Suva, on the Rowa, and at Navua, where the Fiji-Van-couver mill is (with 4500 Indians in the Navua district). The cook and. house boys, and store and other town hands continued work. Then they were all told or threatened that if' they did not cense work by February 1 they would be beaten. The Government received a deputation of supposed leaders. The Governor promised a commission to inquire into the wages question and cost of living, and the deputation promised to try to get the men to return to work. The men did not resume work, but tho commission has held five sittings. The evidence supplied was really ridiculous. Men said they earned lis 6d a week and spent £2 6s on food. The minimum ration for a single man was given at 291b of sharps, rice, and dhall. with vegetables, milk, and a long list of other things weekly. An old planter swore that if an Indian ate all that he would not be able to work. ■ IMPUDENT AND ARROGANT.

Then threats were made to the loyal "boys," and an Indian Women's Association 'took a hand. They waylaid and ill-used some of the men, mutilating them and acting more like ghouls than human beings—purely Bolshevist.

On January 29 a mob invaded the town to punish a European. The native police and returned soldiers beat them back with clubs. Matters got warmer. Everywhere the Indians wero impudent and arrogant. The women began to visit business promises to get at loyalists. Then on Tuesday a special constable, a lad from a Government office, tried to arrest the loader of one of these harpy bands, when hundreds of men sprang -up from everywhere. This was in tlio Indian suburb of TooraJt. The " special" and four native constables had a bad time, but other "specials" were rushed up, then police with rifles, then military and machine guns. Fully 2000 Indians (armed with sticks and stones) were fighting mad. Some 1 men and women had knives. Thirty or forty " specials," with fiddling little batons, and the native police finally arrested 151 men and 12 women. No firearms were used. SEVERAL EUROPEANS INJURED. An old man, George Pilkington, who gallantly tried to help the lad, had cm arm broken, and was seriously injured. Mr Savage, of the Customs, fell, and while down was brutally treated, and was taken unconscious to the hospital. Mr Charlie Caldwell, of the Treasury, received a knif© wound and other outa on the head, and one arm bone was broken. Others liad abrasions. No one was killed. . , The next d«v four bridges on the mam road to Rewa were damaged, planking torn up, etc., and the telephone line was cut. Threo of the bridges were repaired, and a mounted squad brought in tie Europeans from Nasinn, where the Indians were threatening. On Thursday a mob of bstween 200 and 300 at Samabula refused to disperse for the military, crying out " Shoot! Shoot!" Finally 30 or 40 "specials" charged them. Many Indians wore injured, and the crowd dispersed. Tha s>ame evening a crowd at Lami was dispersed and 15 wero arrested. Much anxiety was felt for the settlers upthe Raw* River, along 60 t-o 70 miles' of country, the Indians being very numerous and very threatening. One or two large gatherings wero dispersed by tlio firmness and tact of the district commissioner, and a display cf forae, with a machine gun, was made one night. Now a strong military post is established] at Nausori, and relief parties oan be despatched up the river as required. Everything is now reported quiet. A number of agitators ar© under arrest, and it is likely that the leaders will bo drastically d?alt with soon. The main body of the coolies is composed of quiet, hard-working men, with no desire for fighting. A special session of the Legislative Council last week passed an Ordnance, giving wido powers to the Governor and police, and; making all meetings of Indians illegal, and the position is now well in hand. Thero is no doubt that the agitation is a political one. The natives hate the Indians, and are supporting the Government loyally. A section of the Indian leaders has appealed to the people to go back to work. PERMIT SYSTEM INTRODUCED. PROBABILITY OP CONCESSIONS. SUVA, February 18. The permit system lies been brought in and no Indians can enter or move in Suva without one. This has had a very pacifying cffect, and the men ore returning to woTk everywhere, on the old terms. The commission will probably continue its sittings, and it is most likely that some concessions will bo made. The schooner Alumina arrived in Levuka from Sydney with 150 tons of rice and other food on Monday, and this will help to mend matters. All is reported quiet, and a more settled feeling prevails. The road to Rewa is now in use. On the voyage hero the Marguerite ran into the cyclone on this side of New Caledonia, and a seaman was lost overboard. EXTENT OF THE STRIKE. ALL INDIANS NOT INVOLVED. " NO TROUBLE AT LAUTOKA. Travellers who arrived by the steamer Navua tad little information to give which ia not contained in the messaso of the Herald's correspondent. One gentleman, howeveff, said that it should be understood that the whole of tho Indian population is not involved in the strike. Tho strike, he said, was limited to the region between Suva- and Nosouri, on the Rewa Rivor. On the other side of the islcr.d—at Lautoka, foe instance—the strike was unknown. In this district thero are largo numbers of Indians, many working for tho" Colonial Sugar Company. The fact that they remained <vt work is rerardtod as an indication that the whole trouble is the work of political agitators at Suva., one of the most prominent of whom was deported from Na.fcal on account of hia activities,

One of the loaders it was slated, decided to stand on his dignity and refused to apply for tho pass that Indians lirust now possess. He accordingly had to remain in his house, and incidentally lias become one of tho jokes of Suva. Another traveller stated that, one riot became so serious that Die troops or spocial constables .hurl: to fire, a number being wounded and two or three killed. Tho Fijians, it is stated, arc distinctly hostilo to tho Indians, ajid would rather welcome an opportunity of dealing with them in terms of force.