Fiji, as a British Crown Colony, sent contingents of men and reinforcements to serve directly as part of the British Army. To begin with Britain would only take Europeans from Fiji, but in 1917 the Fiji Labour Corps was accepted to unload supplies at French and Italian ports.
Ratu Tiale Bau Mara Vuiyasawa enlisted in Auckland and was attached to the 4th Maori Reinforcements which sailed for Egypt in May 1916. From a chiefly family in Fiji, he had studied in Sydney. Ratu Tiale served in Egypt and France with the Pioneer Battalion before being transferred to the Rarotongan Company in Palestine in early 1918. He served there until the war ended and was returned to Fiji in early 1919.
The attempted hijacking of an Air New Zealand Boeing 747 at Nadi airport, Fiji, was thwarted when a member of the cabin crew struck the hijacker on the head with a whisky bottle.
This photograph shows a group of New Zealand Coast Watchers and 2 NZEF personnel attached to Fijian Brigade forces in Fiji, 1942. Bluey sits in front, with his master crouching behind.
George Salter, an ambulance driver, is at the back of the group. He fell ill in Fiji after helping wounded American marines and had to be moved temporarily to a hotel to recover. He was lying in his bure (hut) before the transfer.
