British Solomon Islands


The British Solomon Islands Protectorate was first declared over the southern Solomons in 1893, when Captain Gibson R.N., of, declared the southern islands a British protectorate. Other islands were subsequently declared to form part of the Protectorate.

Establishment and addition of islands

The Protectorate was first declared over the southern Solomons in 1893. The formalities in its establishment were carried out by officers of the Royal Navy, who hoisted the British flag and read Proclamations on twenty-one islands. In April 1896, Charles Morris Woodford, was appointed as an Acting Deputy Commissioner of the British Western Pacific Territories. From 30 May to 10 August 1896, HMS Pylades toured through the Solomon Islands archipelago with Woodford, who had been sent to survey the islands, and to report on the economic feasibility of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. On 29 September 1896, in anticipation of the establishment of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, Woodford purchased the island of Tulagi, which he has selected as the site for the administrative centre. The Colonial Office appointed Woodford as the Resident Commissioner in the Solomon Islands on 17 February 1897. He was directed to control the labour trade operating in the Solomon Island waters and to stop the illegal trade in firearms. Arthur William Mahaffy was appointed at the Deputy Commissioner in January 1889. He was based in Gizo, his duties included suppressing head hunting in New Georgia and neighbouring islands.
Bellona and Rennell Islands and the Stewart Islands were added to the Protectorate in 1897, and the Santa Cruz group, the Reef Islands, Anuda, Fataka and Trevannion Islands and Duff group in 1898. On 18 August 1898 and 1 October 1898, the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific issued Proclamations which declared that all those islands should "henceforth" form part of the Protectorate. The two Proclamations of 1898 were superseded by one dated 28 January 1899, which was apparently intended not to consolidate them but also to correct geographical errors: it lists "the Reef Islands, Swallow Group" and a different group of islands referred to collectively as "the Swallow Group," and it includes Trevannion in the Santa Cruz group.
By a Convention signed in 1899 and ratified in 1900, Germany renounced her rights in the islands to the east and south-east of Bougainville, and in October 1900, the High Commissioner issued a Proclamation extending the Protectorate to the islands in question, i.e. Choiseul, Ysabel, Shortland and Fauro Islands, the Tasman group, Lord Howe's group and Gower Island.
Its establishment followed missionary activity which began in the mid 19th century and the establishment of a German Protectorate over the Northern Solomons, following an Anglo-German Treaty of 1886. German interests were transferred to the United Kingdom under the Samoa Tripartite Convention of 1899, in exchange for recognition of the German claim to Western Samoa.

Suppression of head-hunting and punitive actions

Until about 1902 there continued to be headhunting raids against Solomon Islanders, and there were also instances of European traders and plantation owners being killed. The response of the colonial officials was to engage in punitive raids against the villages that were either known to have been involved in the violence, or were suspect to have been involved. Ships of the Royal Navy would also engage in punitive actions. In March 1897, the sailors of HMS Rapid exacted revenge for the deaths of traders at Rendova, New Georgia, Nggatokae and Vella Lavella. In September 1891 the British naval warship HMS Royalist punished a village of the Kalikoqu tribe of the Roviana Lagoon, on southern side of New Georgia Island in the Solomon Islands archipelago, following the murder of a trader; the sailors shot some of the men who were believed to be the leaders, set fire to the village and destroyed canoes.

Shipping in the Solomon Islands

Woodford initially used a 27-foot open whaleboat to travel between the islands, or travelled on any available trading boat or Royal Navy ship. From 1896 the Burns Philp steamship the Titus was making between four and seven voyages from Sydney to the Solomon Islands. Two ships owned by Gustavus John Waterhouse of Sydney operated in the Solomon Islands; the schooner Chittoor, and SS Kurrara, a steam ship. The schooner Lark owned by J. Hawkins, from Sydney, also sailed in the waters of the Solomon Islands.
In 1899, Woodford purchased the Lahloo, a 33-ton ketch, which he used for suppressing head-hunting in the New Georgia group. The Lahloo was wrecked in 1909. The Belama, a 100-ton steam ship, was acquired in 1909. However, it was wreaked in February 1911 when it struck an uncharted reef off
Isabel. The replacement ship, also named Belama, arrived at Tulagi in August 1911. It was wrecked off Isabel in 1921.

Plantation economy

The policy of the colonial officials was to attempt to make the protectorate self-supporting through taxes imposed on copra and other products exported from the Islands. The long-term interests of the islanders was relegated to a secondary priority as the colonial officials focused on encouraging the Investment by Australian and English corporate trading companies and individual plantation owners. By 1902 there were about 83 Europeans in the Solomon Islands, with most engaged in the development of copra plantations.
The Solomon Regulation of 1900, and later revisions, was intended by the British Solomon Islands administration in Tulagi, the Western Pacific High Commission in Suva, and the Colonial Office in London to make land available for commercial plantations by a formal process of identifying ‘waste’ land – that is land not occupied by Solomon Islanders – which could be declared “not owned, cultivated, or occupied by any native or non-native person”. The Regulation of 1900 implemented a concept of ‘waste’ land that was not consistent with Melanesian customs, as unoccupied land was still recognised by customary law as being the property of individual people and communities.
From 1900 to 1902, an attempt was made by the Pacific Islands Company Ltd to establish plantations. However, it was unable to raise sufficient capital to establish plantations because the Regulation of 1900 only permitted the issue of ‘Certificates of Occupation’ of the land and not a formal lease. This limited right to occupy the land were not accepted by financiers as sufficient collateral to finance development of plantations.
Lever's Pacific Plantations Ltd, a subsidiary of Lever Brothers, became the largest operator of plantations, with 26 plantations established by 1916. The Malayta Company operated 7 plantations, and was controlled by the Young family who were associated with the South Seas Evangelical Church. Burns, Philp & Co operated 7 plantations through subsidiaries - the Solomon Islands Development Company, the Shortland Islands Plantation Ltd and Choiseul Plantations Ltd. These corporate plantation owners employed 55 per cent of the Solomon Islanders engaged in the copra industry, with individual plantation owners employing the remaining 45 percent.

World War II

Japanese invasion of the Solomon Islands

In 1940 Donald Gilbert Kennedy joined the administration of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. Following the attack of the Japanese on Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941, Kennedy organised an intelligence-gathering network of local informants and messengers to carry out the role of Coastwatchers to monitor Japanese activity. The Coastwatchers were planters, government officials, missionaries and islanders monitoring who went into hiding after the Japanese invasion of the Solomon Islands in January 1942. The Coastwatchers monitored Japanese shipping and aircraft and also rescued Allied personnel who were stranded in the territory held by the Japanese.
The counter-attack was led by the United States; the 1st Division of the US Marine Corps landed on Guadalcanal and Tulagi in August 1942. Some of the bitterest fighting of World War II took place on the islands for almost three years.
Tulagi, the seat of the British administration on the island of Nggela Sule in Central Province was destroyed in the heavy fighting following landings by the US Marines. Then the tough battle for Guadalcanal, which was centered on the capture of the airfield, Henderson Field, led to the development of the adjacent town of Honiara as the United States logistics center.

Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana

Islanders Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana were Allied scouts during the war. They became famous when they were noted by National Geographic for being the first men to find the shipwrecked John F. Kennedy and his crew of the PT-109 using a traditional dugout canoe. They suggested the idea of using a coconut to write a rescue message for delivery. The coconut was later kept on Kennedy's desk. Their names had not been credited in most movie and historical accounts, and they were turned back before they could visit President Kennedy's inauguration, though the Australian coastwatcher would also meet the president. They were visited by a member of the Kennedy family in 2002, where they still lived in traditional huts without electricity.

War consequences

The impact of the war on islanders was profound. The destruction caused by the fighting and the longer-term consequences of the introduction of modern materials, machinery and western cultural artifacts, transformed traditional isolated island ways of life. The reconstruction was slow in the absence of war reparations and with the destruction of the pre-war plantations, formerly the mainstay of the economy. Significantly, the Solomon Islanders' experience as labourers with the Allies led some to a new appreciation of the importance of economic organisation and trade as the basis for material advancement. Some of these ideas were put into practice in the early post-war political movement "Maasina Ruru"—often redacted to "Marching Rule".

Towards independence

Legislative Council and Executive Council

Stability was restored during the 1950s, as the British colonial administration built a network of official local councils. On this platform Solomon Islanders with experience on the local councils started participation in central government, initially through the bureaucracy and then, from 1960, through the newly established Legislative and Executive Councils. The Protectorate did not possess a constitution of its own until 1960. Positions on both Councils were initially appointed by the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, but progressively more of the positions were directly elected or appointed by electoral colleges formed by the local councils.

Proposed transfer to Australia

In the 1950s, British and Australian government officials contemplated transferring sovereignty of the Solomon Islands from the United Kingdom to Australia. The Solomon Islands had close ties to Australia; it used the Australian pound, relied on Australian air and shipping services, employed many Australians as civil servants, and its businesses were dependent upon Australian capital. Some Australian officials argued that the British had shown little interest in the development of the islands, while British officials believed Australia did not have sufficient trained staff to take over the administration. Unlike Christmas Island, the Cocos Islands, and the New Hebrides, Australia made no formal request for a transfer of sovereignty. However, there were informal discussions between officials in the Colonial Office and the Australian Department of Territories.
In 1956, Territories Minister Paul Hasluck proposed to cabinet that Australia take over the Solomons, with the support of External Affairs Minister Richard Casey. It was proposed that Australia would effectively double the annual development funds that the UK had allocated to the Solomons, from £1,073,533 to about £2 million. However, the Treasury Department was unenthused about the additional expenditure, and the Defence Department stated there was "no defence advantage in assuming responsibility" with the islands in British hands. Cabinet rejected the proposal.

First national election

The first national election was held in 1964 for the seat of Honiara, and by 1967 the first general election was held for all but one of the 15 representative seats on the Legislative Council.
Elections were held again in 1970 and a new constitution was introduced. The 1970 constitution replaced the Legislative and Executive Councils with a single Governing Council. It also established a 'committee system of government' where all members of the Council sat on one or more of five committees. The aims of this system were to reduce divisions between elected representatives and the colonial bureaucracy and to provide opportunities for training new representatives in managing the responsibilities of government. It was also claimed that this system was more consistent with the Melanesian style of government, however, this was quickly undermined by opposition to the 1970 constitution and the committee system by elected members of the council. As a result, a new constitution was introduced in 1974 which established a standard Westminster form of government and gave the Islanders both Chief Ministerial and Cabinet responsibilities. Solomon Mamaloni became the country's first Chief Minister in July 1974 and the Governing Council was transformed into the Legislative Assembly. The protectorate that existed over Solomon Islands was ended under the terms of the Solomon Islands Act 1978 which annexed the territories comprising the protectorate as part of Her Majesty’s dominions.