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[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke - Archive / Collection]. Slim Folio. 44 pages, stapled. Harry Luke's (Lukach) personal working copy. Very good condition. The four lengthy letters/memoranda are a stunning Document of an extensive tour of the Gilbert Islands and othe rIslands in the Realm of the British Western Pacific Colonies and these letters constitute a thorough personnell - evaluation of Colonial Administrators and Commissioners by A.F.Richards ("Old Sinister"), who at this point was in office since November 1936 and does not camouflage his thoughts: I. August 1st [1937] at Tarawa [Atoll and the capital of the Republic of Kiribati, Micronesia] Pages 1 - 9: Richards starts with praising Commander Garsia, who he visited on Nauru (Australian Mandate): "My dear Dawe, I am sitting in Tarawa after completing my Tour of the Northern Gilberts.I decided to put in to Nauru, so as to be able to compare it with Ocean Island. It was well worth while. We spent the 21st July [1937] there.here at last were the happy, smiling people of the Southern Seas and here - at long last - was a competent administrator". Richards then goes on to Ocean Island "Barley is rather a calamity. He is of the type that will talk for 3 weeks about and around a subject with no decision at the end, rather than spend 3 minutes doing something.He talks too much and drinks too much - a garrulous weakling, somewhat afraid of the Phosphate commission and determined to be their most obedient and humble servant. The flesh pots of Ocean Island are too much for him.He sits there in comfort, travels too little and doesn't use the Nimanoa (the Nimanoa is the R.C.'s Yacht, 150 tons gross, about 70 ft. long and can do 6 knots on her engines, ketch rig) nor does he allow other officers to have her much. Incidentally he is immune from sea-sickness and is one of the few people who can use the Nimanoa without being ill. He does not give any of his officers any power of initiative and has none himself. Complains of the excess of office work which ties him to Ocean Island. This is bunkum ; the Gilbert and Ellice Island Colony is today in a state of administrative paralysis - lack of transport and lack of purpose being jointly responsible. The assessment of Resident Commissioner J.C. Barley, who was headquartered on Ocean (Banaba) Island, located west of the Gilberts, goes on for about four full pages. II. August 15th [1937] [Pages 9 - 16]: "I continue this in a very rough seas, which makes writing a trial, between Rotuma and Taveuni" / Richards goes on to talk about a trip he took "on the Nimanoa to Niutao, the first of the Ellice Group.thence to Vaitupu and on to Funafuti". ALso trip to Rotuma and lots of detail about Islands and Islanders. III. July 18th [1937] "On board H.M.S.Leith" - [Pages 17 - 29]: Tunabuli Ysabel, British Solomon Islands [This is 16 days after Amelia Earhart vanished and no word of it in this letter to Dawe. "My dear Dawe, my last day in the Solomons I propose to use in dealing you another shattering blow with my private depressions.One has to remember that Suva is as far from Tulagi as Jamaica is from Downing Street.Of course there is wireless communication which is largely used.The only way to run the Solomons is to pick a good man, aged about 40, with the right experience, give him a pretty freehand and plenty of backing and retain only a guiding control of policy." "Richards then goes into a delicate story of infidelity between the wife of the Chief Magistrate on Tulagi (Solomon Islands) and the General Manager of Lever's, "a strong and lusty Australian, a bachelor and trier". IV: 26th June [1937] "At Sea. H.M.S.Leith" - [Pages 30 - 44]: "My dear Dawe, I am minded to write to you some private impressions of this tour. You need not - probably will not have time to - read them, written as they are on a heaving sloop. But have them you shall, though it is but an ill return for your lately glorious letter which left Creasy so sadly lamenting. Punis. Seller Inventory # 31779AB
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