THE END OF SOMETHING?
Here is Rudyard Kipling foretelling the end of the British Empire. It is part of his poem Recessional written by him in 1897.
Far called, our navies melt away,
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations spare us yet,
Lest we forget – lest we forget!
Are all the present ills, now evident in so many onetime parts of the British Empire, the fault the long-gone colonists who governed them? Some sources tell us that Britain, at the height of her power, invaded 90% of ‘the world’. If that is so, then there are plenty of places where warfare or insurrection might occur.
For some years, I had a front seat from which to see some of the British Colonial Elite returning to their home country when independence unseated them. And to watch the new masters and commanders, Kenyatta, Nkrumah, for example, make their way to see the British Queen or to address the United Nations. Kipling’s poem ‘Recessional’ resonated with me then. I left Africa and worked for a while in Fiji and Papua New Guinea both of which have now become strategically relevant in today’s disturbing times.
I invite you to look critically at my stories of a time amongst the Arabs and Berbers of Libya and the people of Pacific Islands. Are they relevant Today? I suggest they are if only because there is now a struggle for influence in the Pacific Islands by the Chinese probably to shore up their southern flanks for the invasion of Formosa.
I taught clever young men in one of England’s oldest schools for well over a quarter of a century. The main school building was an architectural hymn to the British Empire, and the walls of the corridors were then hung with images of Imperial Glory and lists of famous alumni. I had served in the Royal Air Force in Libya and later as a trader in Fiji and Papua New Guinea as the British Empire began to collapse. Those of us who served in the armed forces or in some other capacity in the far-flung Empire are now open to accusations of colonialism. Why, I must ask you, is it necessary to label all of us who worked overseas in the last century with a pejorative word which ‘deplatforms’ us without a hearing.
If you are amongst those who think thus, I would ask you, as I asked many of my pupils, what will your grandchildren think of your generation in sixty years from now. I cannot believe that you will be proud of the rampaging civil war in the Sudan or the accelerating climate change threatening the Sahel countries. Nor will you be proud, I suggest, that you are trying to limit the multitudes of migrants desperately escaping poverty and tyranny in their home countries and facing the hazardous people trafficking routes to find a better life. Especially if you are Fijian, your grandchildren are unlikely to thank you for the increase in methamphetamine use and associated rise in HIV foisted on them by powerful drug cartels. How happy will you be when you look back on the war burgeoning even now in Gaza and the Sudan
So it was that in the second half of the 20th Century, I worked in Libya for more than eight years and later for one of the great Pacific Island trading houses. I confess that I was partly motivated by a sense of adventure arising out of the popular travel and adventure stories I read as an impressionable youth. They were unashamedly colonialist, and they were written by the ‘influencers’ of their day.
In Libya I know I was helping to pave the way for a Libyan airline. In Fiji and Papua New Guinea, I thought I was helping to benefit the Island economy. In so doing I travelled widely and often throughout both.
I have had much time since those colourful days to reflect on the morals of that enterprise and on the effect the colonial system had on the island people amongst whom I worked. I invited you to read the stories of my experiences in Fiji and Papua New Guinea and their causes and consequences with which time and reflection have endowed them.
FIJI
In 1874 the Fiji Islands became a British Crown Colony because several powerful Fijian chiefs wanted the protection the British would give them. There had been a goodly number of British Christian missionaries at work in Fiji who persuaded many of the prominent Chiefs to abandon their internal differences and, not least, the practice of cannibalism. These heroic missionaries in their black coats and grinding poverty did much to pave the way for British interests. The British, who were at first reluctant to take Fiji on board realised that there were good reasons to do so. What were they?
There was a growing body of British and American traders in business in Fiji and there were resources still available to establish sugar, cotton, copra and coffee plantations in the main islands. However, the geographical position of the Fiji Island in the South Pacific made it possible for Queen Victoria’s Royal Navy to use it as a base to extend its influence and challenge the other great powers such as the USA, France and Germany with colonial ambitions in the region. Tongans were actively vying for control, and the Americans very nearly achieved it.
It is Fiji’s position in the South Pacific today which is attractive to the growing Chinese Communist Empire much to the consternation of Australia, New Zealand and the USA. It also attracts the major drug cartels who use the islands as a staging post for the supply of drugs to Australia and New Zealand
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
New Guinea is the world’s second largest Island, after Greenland; it defies easy description. The more so because it is surrounded by spectacular but impenetrable reefs and protected by a difficult shoreline. The western part of the island is part of Indonesia and separated from the eastern part, Papua New Guinea, by two very remote river systems, the Fly and the Sepik. The Island is in an interesting strategic position as a line of defence for Australia, its immediate neighbour southwards across the Torres Strait. In World War II the Japanese tested this by invading the northern shores and pushing on through the central mountainous country towards Port Moresby the capital on the South Coast. They were beaten back by a courageous Australian Army and a well-equipped American military force.
If I were to find the fact about Papua New Guinea which is most revealing I would tell you that there are 838 living languages still spoken in the country. Why is that so? I will try to explore this unique condition later. In 1975 Papua New Guinea achieved its independence and embarked on the formation of a democratic state. How was this possible without a common language and in the face of huge difficulties inherent in the terrain? In my view that was an achievement of the highest order orchestrated by an enlightened Administration. Now in 2025 there are disturbing increases in crime and inter-tribal violence which must trouble near neighbours considerably.
I worked for one of the great trading houses which had developed the commercial life of the country and were looking with interest at the potential tourist industry. I travelled around PNG and its archipelago to learn about its potential as a tourist destination. What did I find? That the people and their customs were unique and should remain so. Their history is just now being uncovered by archaeologists, anthropologists, and biochemists and their findings are being shared in expensive and turgid books and learned papers published for other academics.
I soon found that my left femur which had been broken in the accident in Fiji had not mended. I suspect that made me not just the only person to have flown around PNG with a broken leg, but it also allows me to tell you about the unifying language which helped the diverse people to exercise their democratic rights. It is a ‘pidgin’ language in which I was known as ‘the big fella im leg im bugger up’.
DON'T KILL ME NOW 