COPY
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1st April, 1964.
1
Dear Godman Irvine,
I have looked into the point you made in your supplementary question about Fiji on the 24th March.
My decision to convene a conference in 1964 or early 1965 to discuss the constitutional future of Fiji was ma de public in the Governor's address to the Fiji Legislative Council on the 22nd August, of which I enclose a copy. Had Parliament been sitting at the time, I would have let the House know.
In December, the United Nations General Assembly considered the report of the Committee of 24, which included a section on Fiji. Although we question the right of the United Nations to discuss particular territories, we cannot stop them doing so; and when they do, we give them as much up-to-date publicly available information as we properly can. I need hardly say that there is no question of our preferring the United Nations to the House as a forum for announcing new developments. I hold most strongly the view that it is to Parliament and not to the United Nations that we are accountable for our Colonial policy.
You may like to know, in addition, that the Fiji Legislative Council resolved on the 17th January to introduce the "Member system" as soon as possible. The Governor expects that the administrative arrangements for doing this will take a little time, but he hopes to have it working by July. We shall want to run the system in before holding a conference on the next step, but I hope we shall be ready to do this fairly early in 1965. I shall make an announcement about this nearer the time.
Yours ever,
(Sgd.) Duncan Sandys
B. Godman Irvine, Esq., M.P.
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