B. Voluntarily to retain their link with the United Kingdom, with democratic local institutions and with the United Kingdom retaining its present responsibilities. The result of the referendum was as follows: Under the Gibraltar Constitution Order in Council 1964, there was a Gibraltar Council, a Council of Ministers and a Legislative Council consisting of a speaker appointed by the Governor, 11 elected members and two ex-officio members, the Attorney-General and the Financial Secretary. At Constitutional talks held in Gibraltar in July 1968, agreement was reached with local leaders on the lines of certain constitutional changes. These were incorporated in the new 1969 Constitution which is contained in the Gibraltar Constitution Order 1969, and which came into effect on 11th August 1969. This replaced the Legislative Council by a House of Assembly consisting of a Speaker, 15 elected members, the Attorney-General and the Financial & Development Secretary and formalised the devolution of responsibility for certain defined domestic matters to Ministers appointed from among the elected members of the Assembly. It also made provision for the abolition of the City Council, which dealt with municipal affairs and public utilities. The Governor retains direct responsibility for matters relating to defence, external affairs and internal security. He has the power to intervene in the conduct of domestic affairs in support of this responsibility; and has certain powers of intervention in the interests of maintaining financial and economic stability. Executive authority is exercised by the Governor, who is also Commander in Chief. In the exercise of his functions relating to matters not dealt with by Ministers the Governor, whilst retaining the usual reserved powers, normally acts in accordance with the advice of the Gibraltar Council (which consists of the Chief Minister, the Deputy Fortress Commander, the Deputy Governor, the Attorney-General, the Financial Secretary and four other Ministers). The elected members of the Gibraltar Council are appointed by the Governor after consultation with the Chief Minister. There is a Council of Ministers composed of all the Ministers and presided over by the Chief Minister. The preamble to the Order in Council (to which the new Constitution is an annex) contains the following: "Whereas Gibraltar is part of Her Majesty's dominions and Her Majesty's Government have given assurance to the people of Gibraltar that Gibraltar will remain part of Her Majesty's dominions unless and until an Act of Parliament otherwise provides, and furthermore, that Her Majesty's Government will never enter into arrangements under which the people of Gibraltar would pass under the sovereignty of another state against their freely and democratically expressed wishes." The Constitution also contains a Chapter providing for the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms on the lines of similar Chapters in the constitutions of various other territories within the Commonwealth. GOVERNORS of Gibraltar SINCE THE Great Siege of 1779-1783 1776 Lt.-Gen. Sir G. A. Eliot, KCB (later Baron Heathfield of Gibraltar) 1784 Major-Gen. C. O'Hara 1791 Lt.-Gen. Sir R. Boyd 1794 General Sir H. Clinton, KCB (Lieut.Governor) 1794 General Rainsford Major-Gen. Sir T. Trigge, KB (Lieut.- 1801 1802 H.R.H. the Duke of Kent, KG 1891 General Sir L. Nicholson, KCB General Sir R. Biddulph, GCB, 1893 GCMG 1900 Field Marshal Sir G. S. White, vc, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, GCVO 1905 General Sir F. W. E. F. ForestierWalker, GCMG, KCB 1910 General Sir Archibald Hunter, GCB, GCVO, DSO 1913 Lt.-Gen. Sir H. S. G. Miles, GCB, GCMG, GBE, CVO 1918 General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, 1820 General J. Pitt, Earl of Chatham, KG 1831 General Sir W. Houston, Bt., GCB, GCH (Lieut.-Governor) 1835 Major-Gen. Sir A. Woodford, GCB General Sir Edmund (afterwards Field 1939 Lt.-Gen. Sir Clive Liddell, KCB, 1941 General (afterwards Field Marshal) the Viscount Gort, vc, GCB, CBE, DSO, MVO, MC 1942 Lt.-Gen.Sir Noel Mason-MacFarlane, 1944 General Sir Kenneth Anderson, KCB, MC 1952 General Sir Gordon MacMillan, Elected Members Sir Joshua A. Hassan A. J. Canepa A. P. Montegriffo M. K. Featherstone A. W. Serfaty COUNCIL OF MINISTERS Sir Joshua Hassan (Chief Minister) A. J. Canepa (Minister for Labour and Social Security) A. W. Serfaty (Minister for Tourism, Trade and Economic Development (including Port)) I. Abecassis (Minister for Housing (with Post Office)) Lt. Col. J. L. Hoare (Minister for Public Works and Municipal Services) Chief Justice: Sir Edgar Unsworth, CMG Judge of the Court of First Instance, Stipendiary Magistrate, READING LIST ANDREWS, A. Proud Fortress: the fighting story of Gibraltar. Evans, 1958. DRINKWATER, Col. J. A History of the Siege of Gibraltar 1779-1783. New GARRATT, G. T. Gibraltar and the Mediterranean. Cape, London, 1939. KENYON, E. R. Gibraltar Under Moor, Spaniard and Briton. Methuen, 1938. RUSSELL, J. Gibraltar Besieged 1779-1783. Heinemann, 1965. HMSO London, (Miscellaneous No. 12) (1965)—Gibraltar, Recent HMSO London (Miscellaneous No. 13) (1966)—Gibraltar, Talks with HMSO London (Miscellaneous No. 6) (1967)—Further Documents HMSO London: Gibraltar Report for 1969. September 1972, SBN 11 580067 0. 531 THE GILBERT AND ELLICE ISLANDS The Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, which also includes Ocean Island, the Phoenix and the Line Islands, is situated in the South-West Pacific around the point where the International Date Line cuts the Equator. Although the total land area is only 324 square miles it is scattered over more than two million square miles of ocean, and distances between extreme points are enormous. Christmas Island in the east is 2,000 miles from Ocean Island in the west, and the latitude of Washington Island in the north is more than 1,000 miles from the latitude of Niulakita in the south. Furthermore, the islands are remote from large centres of civilisation, and Tarawa, the capital, is about 2,500 miles from Sydney and 1,365 miles from Suva. The scattered nature of the territory and its remoteness cause many difficulties in administration, transport and communications. The Gilbert and Ellice Islands are atolls composed of coral reefs built on the outer arc of the ridges formed by pressure from the central Pacific against the ancient core of Australia. In most of the atolls the reef encloses a lagoon, on the eastern side of which are long narrow stretches of land varying in length from a few hundred yards to some ten miles, and in width from one or two hundred yards to nearly a mile. The surface of these islands seldom rises more than twelve feet above sea level. The climate of the central Gilberts, the Phoenix Islands and Ocean Island is of the maritime equatorial type, but that of the islands farther north and south is of the tropical type. The mean annual temperature is 27°C (80°F). The trade winds blow throughout the year with a strong easterly component and exercise a moderating influence on the temperature. From October to March there are occasional westerly gales. Rain comes in sharp squalls and is very irregular, giving wide variations in total fall from island to island and year to year. The average is 40 inches a year near the Equator, rising to 120 inches in the extreme north and south. A census of the population of the islands was held in December 1968. The total population enumerated was 53,517 and comprised 26,404 males and 27,113 females. The territory lies midway between Polynesia and Micronesia, the people of the Gilbert Islands being Micronesian stock, whilst the people of the Ellice Islands are Polynesians with close connections with Samoa and the Tokelaus to the south and east. The racial groups indicated by the 1968 census were as follows: Micronesians (almost entirely Gilbertese) 44,897; Polynesians (almost entirely Ellice Islanders) 7,465; Europeans 458; Chinese (employed at Ocean Island) 65; Mixed race 566; other races 66. The land area of the 29 inhabited islands is very small, and although no accurate surveys have been made, it has been estimated that there is an area of 100 square miles in the Gilbert Islands and 10 square miles in the Ellice Islands. With a population estimated to be increasing at a rate to double itself in about 30 years, despite a family-planning campaign, it is not surprising that population pressure is acute. In 1968 the density of population was nearly 0.3 persons per acre. The people of the territory maintain a reasonable standard of living only by intensive exploitation of the sea and the very limited resources of their infertile atolls, and by sending their young men out to work. A small number find em ployment on the copra plantations in the Line Islands (Washington, Fanning and Christmas), but the main outlet at present is to the phosphate industry on Ocean Island and Nauru which take approximately 500 and 650 workers respectively, many of them accompanied by their families. There is, already, a surplus of labour available for employment but a critical situation will arise in the late 1970s, when the phosphate which is mined on Ocean Island will be exhausted at the present rate of extraction and the population may well be approaching 68,000 with a density of over 600 to the square mile. The main languages spoken are Gilbertese, Ellice and English. The official language is English, but on the outer islands away from the headquarters at Tarawa it is seldom used. Practically the entire population is Christian, but whereas the religion of the Ellice Islands is predominantly Protestant, that of the Gilbert Islands is more evenly divided between Protestant and Roman Catholic. The Medical Department has its headquarters at Bikenibeu, Tarawa, where the Central Hospital (142 beds) is also situated. Another General Hospital (125 beds) is operated at Ocean Island by the British Phosphate Commissioners for their employees. There is a cottage hospital with 20 beds at Funafuti in the Ellice Islands and a small hospital/dispensary with a medical officer or a male medical assistant in charge on all other islands. The principal endemic diseases are infantile diarrhoea, chicken pox, amoebiasis, bacillary dysentery, filariasis (mostly in the Ellice group), tuberculosis and leprosy. Tuberculosis remains one of the most serious public health problems. Medical expenditure in 1971 including Capital and Aid expenditure amounted to an estimated $A417,176. The forty-two islands of the territory are divided into four districts which are (with their headquarters islands in brackets): Ocean Island, Gilbert Islands (Tarawa), Ellice Islands (Funafuti), and Line Islands (Christmas Island). The Phoenix group and the Central and Southern Line Islands are uninhabited. Tarawa is the capital. The main Government Stations are on three separate islets on South Tarawa-Betio, Bairiki, and Bikenibeu. Bairiki and Bikenibeu are connected by causeways, but Betio, the port area and scene of the bitter struggle between the United States Marines and the Japanese in 1943, lies two miles west of Bairiki and is served by a scheduled launch service. The headquarters of Government are on Bairiki Islet, where are to be found the Legislative Council building, the Secretariat, Treasury, Legal, Audit, Labour, Information, and the Broadcasting Departments. The principal occupations for the available labour force of the islands are provided by the open-cast phosphate mining at Ocean Island, work on the copra plantations in the Line Islands, and Government service. Some labour, however, has secured employment overseas, notably in the phosphate workings at Nauru, and with a fishing company and agricultural enterprises in the New Hebrides. The Marine Training School at Tarawa produced 233 seamen who were employed by overseas shipping lines in 1971. Apart from a very small number of skilled or professional expatriates, all workers are Gilbertese and Ellice Islanders to whom, for the most part, work is a profitable way of seeing new islands and of increasing prevailing income levels on their home islands. The bulk of the population is engaged in copra production on a subsistence basis. During 1971 the British Phosphate Commissioners at Ocean Island employed 580 persons of whom 486 were Gilbert and Ellice Islanders. A further 808 workers from the islands were employed by the Commissioners at Nauru. |