To not reinstate the past:

Abstract Most interpretations stress a qualitative shift in colonial policy at the end of World War II, reflecting a major reorientation of outlook towards development, welfare and ultimately independence. There are, however, continuities before and after the war that call for a shift of emphasis. Because the British Solomon Islands Protectorate is conventionally represented as an extreme case of backwardness and severity before the war, it should present the putative contrast sharply. On the contrary, the pre-war administration field staff had aspirations for a more progressive regime, but these were thwarted by the protectorate's poverty and were shelved by the eruption of the war. The war-time destruction prompted administrators to consider afresh the problems of colonial development, coinciding with Colonial Office demands for post-war development submissions. Proposals proved too ambitious for the limited imperial purse, but even the attenuated plans proved unrealistic given the acute shortages of material and human resources. Thus, while ‘post-war thinking’ began well before the war, the era of ‘post-war development’ could not properly begin until several years after the end of the war. Notes *Grateful acknowledgment is made to Judith Bennett and Doug Munro for their helpful suggestions and assistance with sources. 1 Sir Arthur Gordon, ‘Paper on the system of taxation in force in Fiji read before the Royal Colonial Institute, 18 March 1879’ (London 1879), 8–11; O.H.K. Spate, The Fijian People: economic problems and prospects, Legislative Council of Fiji, Council Paper no. 13 of 1959. 2 Unless otherwise stated, archival references are to the records of the Western Pacific High Commission (WPHC), now located at the University of Auckland. CF 82/3 Memo by W.S. Marchant, May 1943. 3 For example, K.R. Howe et al. (eds), Tides of History (Honolulu 1994), 170–3, 195–201, 227–9; Barrie Macdonald, ‘Self-determination and self government’, Journal of Pacific History, 17 (1982), 51–61. Judith M. Brown and William Roger Lewis (eds), Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. 4: The Twentieth Century (Oxford 1999), chs 11, 13, 14 and 29. Donald Denoon et al. (eds), The Cambridge History of the Pacific Islanders (Cambridge 1997) fails to broach the question of post-war development altogether. 4 J.W. Davidson, Samoa mo Samoa (Melbourne 1967), ch. 6. 5 Sir Ralph D. Furse, Aucuparius: memoirs of a recruiting officer (Oxford 1962). For a memoir of pre-war cadet and district officer, see Wilfred Fowler, This Island’s Mine (London 1959). Vaskess commented favourably on the standard of staff recruited in this manner, and unfavourably on locally available settlers as potential officials. CF82/3, vol. 1, ‘Post-War Policy, Reconstruction and Development’, 30 Aug. 1943, Part 4. See also James A. Boutilier, ‘The government is the district officer: an historical analysis of district officers as middlemen in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, 1893–1943’ in William L. Rodman and Dorothy Ayers Counts (eds), Middlemen and Brokers in Oceania, ASAO Monograph No. 9 (Ann Arbor 1982), 35–67. 6 F10/25, Administration, native, in British Solomon Islands Protectorate. Various reports and memos dated 1931 and later. 7 It may be disputed whether the conservation of village labour was primarily intended to maintain a labour supply for plantations (Clive Moore, Jacqueline Leckie, and Doug Munro, Labour in the South Pacific (Townsville 1990), xxviii), or to preserve life and social cohesion. Contemporaries doubtless held contrasting views, but it may be asserted that colonial administrators did not regard plantations as the raison d’être of colonial government. 8 The British Solomon Islands Protectorate (BSIP) on being established was given a small grant to cover initial administrative costs, but apparently nothing more until 1935, when it received a grant of £5,000 from the Colonial Development Fund for research and treatment of diseases in coconut palms. BSIP Annual Report for 1935 (1936). 9 I have not located an official record but it is referred to in W.F.M. Clemens, ‘Diary 1942 Solomon Islands’, 2 Dec. 1942, TS in Rhodes House Library, Oxford. 10 CF 82/3, Memorandum on Post-war reconstruction. May 1943. 11 Ibid. 12 CF82/3, Post-war policy, reconstruction, and reorganization of administration, 30 Aug. 1943. For the comments on labour, see pp. 4–5. 13 CF82/3, HCWP to Secretary of State, 6 Jun. 1944. 14 CF82/18/1, Gilbert & Ellice Islands Colony: policy and administration after the war, 4 Oct. 1944. 15 BSIP Annual Report for 1912–1913 (n.d.), 5. 16 BSIP Annual Report for 1918–1919 (1920), 3. 17 BSIP Annual Report for 1925–1926 (n.d.), 3. Inevitably, these beginnings were mainly in areas of official residence and work. 18 BSIP Annual Report for 1919–1920 (n.d.), 3–4. 19 BSIP Annual Report for 1921–22 (1923). 20 BSIP Annual Report for 1922–1923 (n.d.), 2–4. 21 BSIP Annual Report for 1923 (n.d.), 2. 22 BSIP Annual Report for 1926–1927 (n.d.). 23 Successive reports in the same series. 24 F10/25, Native Administration in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, referring to Secretary of State Despatch 92 of 14 Apr. 1924. 25 F10/25, passim. See also Boutilier, ‘The government is the district officer’, 53. 26 F10/25/1, Acting Resident Commissioner to High Commissioner, 30 Apr. 1941. 27 F10/25/1, Courts, Native, in BSIP, Proposals for establishment of. See also the discussion by Hugh Laracy and Eugènie Laracy, ‘Custom, conjugality and colonial rule in the Solomon Islands’, Oceania, 51: 2 (1980), 133–47. 28 CF 82/3, vol. 1, ‘Post war policy, reconstruction and reorganization of administration’, dated 30 Aug. 1943, and sent to the Secretary of State for Colonies, 6 Sept. 1943. 29 CF 82/3, Secretary of State to High Commissioner, Despatch 4, 28 Jan. 1944. 30 Judith A. Bennett, Wealth of the Solomons (Honolulu 1986), 291. 31 CF82/3, Resident Commissioner to High Commissioner, 24 Jan. 1945. 32 CF82/3, High Commissioner to Secretary of State, 20 Apr. 1945. 33 That is, including the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony (GEIC). The Condominium of the New Hebrides and the Kingdom of Tonga Protectorate, though administered under the Western Pacific High Commission, were excluded from Colonial Welfare and Development Act funding. CF 70/7/2, High Commissioner to Resident Commissioner GEIC, 24 Sept. 1945. 34 The BSIP administration used Australian pounds sterling (A£), while British grants were in English pounds (E£). The conversion ratio was A£125 = E£100. 35 CF82/3, ‘Development plans for Western Pacific High Commission Territories’, 18 Jan. 1947. 36 CF82/3, High Commissioner to Secretary of State, 3 Feb. 1948. 37 CF82/3, Secretary of State to High Commissioner, 14 May 1948. 38 CF82/3, High Commissioner to Chief Secretary, 26 May 1948. 39 CF82/3, review memo from High Commissioner to Chief Secretary, 15 Feb. 1949 referring to policy statement in despatch from Secretary of State, 14 May 1948. 40 CF82/3 A/High Commissioner [A.F.R. Stoddart] to A/Chief Secretary, 10 Mar. 1950. 41 The Moyne Report of 1939 (by Walter Edward Guinness Moyne, Report (London 1945)), commissioned primarily as a response to riots in Jamaica in 1938, was a foundation document for the ‘new’ colonial policy of the wartime and immediate post-war era. Its recommendations for increased metropolitan support for colonial development were consonant with reports coming from the Western Pacific High Commission. For a discussion of the report and its implications see, for example, Judith M. Brown and William Roger Louis, The Twentieth Century. The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. 4 (Oxford 1999), 609–10. 42 The argument embraces other parts of the Western Pacific High Commission. See Susan Woodburn, ‘Post-war development for the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony’ in Brij V. Lal (ed.), The Defining Years: Pacific Islands, 1945–65 (Canberra 2005), 111–22. 43 CF 82/3, vol. 1, ‘Post war policy, reconstruction and reorganization of administration’, dated 30 August 1943, and sent to the Secretary of State for Colonies, 6 Sept. 1943. 44 CF82/3, vol. 2, ‘Notes of discussion and decisions at conference held at Teneru BSIP, 18 May 1944 [authorship not indicated]. 45 This is also evident from Mitchell's diary, where he describes the local proposals as ‘very wise and hopeful’. Diary of Philip Mitchell, Mss Afr.r.101, 18 May 1944, Rhodes House Library, Oxford. I thank Judith Bennett for extracts. 46 Mitchell's values and his attachment to the ideal of native self-government and the means of attaining it are set out in detail in his book African Afterthoughts (London 1954) in which, however, he says nothing about government of the Western Pacific High Commission or of Fiji. 47 CF82/3, Notes of discussion and decision at conference held at Teneru BSIP, 18 May 1944. 48 CF 70/7/2, High Commissioner to Secretary of State, 14 Jul. 1944. 49 CF82/3, Resident Commissioner to High Commissioner, 2 Nov. 1945. 50 In 1935 the proportion of the total population employed for wages was estimated at about 1/8, or 12.5 percent. BSIP Annual Report for 1936. 51 CF82/3, vol. 2, Secretary of State to High Commissioner, 19 Jan. 1944. 52 CF82/3, High Commissioner to Secretary of State, 12 Dec. 1946. 53 CF82/3, Ten year plan of reconstruction and development and welfare 1946 (30 Nov. 1946). 54 CF82/3, High Commissioner to Secretary of State, 26 May 1947. 55 Hugh Laracy (ed.), Pacific protest: the Maasina Rule movement, Solomon Islands, 1944–1952 (Suva c.1983). 56 BSIP annual reports 1948–1954. The first post-war report, indeed, the first since the report for 1938, was published in 1948. 57 CF82/3 Resident Commissioner to High Commissioner, 2 Nov. 1945. 58 Ronald Hyam, ‘Bureaucracy and “Trusteeship” in the colonial empire’, in Brown and Lewis, Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. 4, 276, quoting William Roger Louis. 59 Ibid. 60 CF83/2, vol. 2, Memo from Chief Secretary [F. Stoddart] to High Commissioner, 26 May 1952. Stoddart succeeded Vaskess as Secretary to the Western Pacific High Commission.

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