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DIPLOMATIC REPORT No. 563/70
General Distribution
FIJI
17 October, 1970
VISIT OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF WALES FOR THE FIJI INDEPENDENCE CELEBRATIONS
The British High Commissioner in Fiji to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
SUMMARY
The Fiji independence celebrations, which were attended by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, made a fitting and impressive close to a chapter of colonial history. (Paragraphs 1-10.)
2. Overseas delegates attending. (Paragraph 11.)
3.
The celebrations were conducted with great dignity, were full of colour and were entirely successful. The emphasis placed on continuing loyalty to the Crown and the expressions of goodwill and gratitude to the United Kingdom. For many Fijians the farewell to British rule was a reluctant one. (Paragraphs 12-13.)
4. His Royal Highness made an immense personal contribution to the success of the celebrations. (Paragraph 14.)
(Restricted) Sir,
Suva,
17 October, 1970.
The independence celebrations in Fiji were a fitting and impressive close to a chapter of colonial history. On 10 October, 1874, Seru Cakobau, King of Fiji, in the presence of his Chiefs, gave his tottering kingdom unreservedly to Queen Victoria in the trust that She and Her successors might rule Fiji justly and affectionately in peace and prosperity. Last week, 96 years later, the descendants of Cakobau and a great gathering of Chiefs assembled to welcome the Prince of Wales and to reaffirm their allegiance to the Crown, before His Royal Highness handed over to the Prime Minister of Fiji the constitutional instruments of an independent dominion. On the eve of independence the Prime Minister had said in a broadcast that the first thought of Fijians on Independence Day should be one of gratitude for the wisdom and foresight of Cakobau and the Fijian Chiefs of 1874.
2. The formal independence ceremonies in Suva were spread over two days in order that proper respect might be accorded to the last lowering of the Union flag at sunset on 9 October before the raising of the Fijian flag on the morning of the 10th. The aircraft carrying the Prince of Wales had been delayed slightly and he drove straight to the Albert Park on the afternoon of 9 October to be received with Fijian ceremonies of welcome. Traditional chiefly gifts of whales' teeth (tabua) were first presented and Chiefs then came forward in turn to kneel
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