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53-757: Scouting in Kiribati was first introduced in 1914, when the country was known as the Gilbert and Ellice Islands . Scouting operated as branch of the Scout Association (UK) in the early years. The Gilbert and Ellice Scout Association was founded in 1927, and joined the World Organization of the Scout Movement in 1933. After the Japanese occupation during World War II , a British Scoutmaster working with local Scouts

106-625: A Crown colony on 12 January 1916 by the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Order in Council, 1915. During the year 1916, the Union Islands ( Tokelau ) were also annexed to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony. On 28 November 1919, Great Britain reasserted its claim to Christmas Island and annexed it to the colony. In July 1920, the Pacific Phosphate Company was liquidated and its assets sold to

159-712: A colony) in the Pacific Ocean were part of the British Empire from 1892 to 1976. They were a protectorate from 1892 to 12 January 1916, and then a colony until 1 January 1976, and were administered as part of the British Western Pacific Territories (BWPT) until they became independent. The history of GEIC was mainly characterized by phosphate mining on Ocean Island . In October 1975, these islands were divided by force of law into two separate colonies, and they became independent nations shortly thereafter:

212-556: A staging post during the preparation for the Battle of Tarawa and the Battle of Makin that commenced on 20 November 1943. Colonel Vivian Fox-Strangways , was the Resident Commissioner of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony in 1941, who was located on Funafuti. After World War II, the colony headquarters was re-established on Tarawa , first on Betio islet and subsequently on Bairiki islet . In November 1945, Fox-Strangways

265-502: A trading voyage from Port Jackson, Sydney, Australia to China. Captain Arent de Peyster sighted the rest of the Ellice island group in 1819, while sailing the ship Rebecca . He named Funafuti atoll "Ellice's Island", after Edward Ellice , a British politician and merchant who owned the ship's cargo. After the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay was published, the name Ellice

318-661: A vast expanse of water. In 1969, after political issues arose that had led to the creation, four years earlier, of the Gilbertese National Party , the hybrid term "Tungavalu" was suggested (combining the indigenous names for the islands of Tungaru and Tuvalu); the idea was rejected because of political tensions between those islands. On 31 December 1936, the population of the Crown Colony totalled 34,443 inhabitants, including 32,390 Gilbert and Ellice Islanders, 262 Europeans and 923 Chinese ("Mongoloids"). Henry Evans Maude ,

371-641: Is named). Despite this, Sir Alfred Stephen , the Chief Justice of New South Wales, found Pritchard and Dagget innocent on the grounds that the British Slave Trade Act 1839 did not apply to the South Pacific Ocean. In 1877, the United Kingdom established a protectorate over the islands designated as being British Western Pacific Territories . In 1886, an Anglo-German agreement partitioned

424-653: The Scarborough , returning from carrying convicts to Botany Bay in 1788, when they sailed through the Gilbert Islands and described Aranuka , Kuria , Abaiang and Tarawa . The vessels had been part of the First Fleet carrying convicts to Australia . They had sailed in a convoy under the command of post-captain Arthur Phillip , New South Wales ' first Governor. The two vessels encountered their first island in

477-566: The British Phosphate Commission (BPC), a consortium established by the governments of Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand . The mining of the phosphate on Ocean Island represented the main revenue of the colony until it ended in 1979. In 1925, Great Britain asked New Zealand to accept responsibility for the administration of the Union Islands (Tokelau) and invited the United States to annex Swains Island . On 4 March 1925,

530-640: The British Slave Trade Act 1839 to provide the authority to arrest blackbirding ships, and charge their captains and owners with slavery charges. However, this approach to suppressing blackbirding was not successful. In 1869, HMS Commander George Palmer of HMS Rosario (1860) , commenced a prosecution in the New South Wales courts of Thomas Pritchard and Captain Dagget of the Daphne . Commander Palmer had found

583-726: The British Western Pacific Territories (BWPT) were administered by a high commissioner who resided in Fiji (and later in the British Solomon Islands ). Then, Sir John Bates Thurston appointed Charles Richard Swayne as the first resident commissioner of the Ellice Islands in 1892 and as the first resident commissioner of the Gilbert Islands in 1893. He was succeeded in 1895 by William Telfer Campbell , who established himself on Tarawa , and remained in office until 1908. Campbell

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636-398: The Daphne in harbour at Levuka in Fiji fitted out like an "African slaver", and filled with Islanders on board looking emaciated and having little knowledge of why they were on the ship. The Daphne was owned by Henry Ross Lewin , a long time blackbirder who had been commissioned to import south sea islanders for Robert Towns ' sugar plantations (the entrepreneur after whom Townsville

689-667: The Solomon Islands , New Guinea , Marshall Islands and the Caroline Islands . In 1877 the Governor of Fiji was given the additional title of High Commissioner for the Western Pacific. However, the claim of a 'sphere of influence' that included the Ellice Islands and the Gilbert Islands did not result in the immediate move to govern those islands. Ships from the navies of the United States of America and European powers that visited

742-516: The "High Court of Admiralty of England and every Vice-Admiralty Court in Her Majesty's dominions out of the United Kingdom shall have jurisdiction to try and condemn as forfeited to Her Majesty or restore any vessel, goods, and effects alleged to be detained or seized in pursuance of the principal Act or of this Act". The 1875 Act also provided authority for "Her Majesty to exercise power and jurisdiction over Her subjects within any islands and places in

795-563: The "unclaimed" central Pacific, leaving Nauru in the German sphere of influence , while placing Ocean Island and the future GEIC in the British sphere of influence. German New Guinea was established in 1884, and German protectorates were established on the Marshall Islands and Nauru , in 1885 and 1888, respectively. Then, between 27 May and 17 June 1892, partly in response to the presence of

848-556: The Buen Viaje Islands ('good trip' islands in Spanish). In 1788, Thomas Gilbert , a British captain, encountered the archipelago while commanding one of two ships of the First Fleet that were looking for an outer passage route from Port Jackson to Canton . In 1820, a Russian admiral, Johann von Krusenstern , named the group "îles Gilbert" (French for Gilbert Islands) in honor of Captain Gilbert's earlier voyage. Around that time,

901-653: The Colony were transferred from Betio to Bairiki . This development included establishing the King George V Secondary School for boys and the Elaine Bernacchi Secondary School for girls. A Colony Conference was organised at Marakei in 1956, which was attended by officials and representatives (magistrates) from each island in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, conferences were held every two years until 1962. The development of administration continued with

954-488: The Ellice Islands became Tuvalu in 1978, and the Gilbert Islands with Banaba (Ocean Island) became part of Kiribati in 1979. The Gilbert Islands sometimes also known as Kingsmill Islands or King's-Mill Islands are a chain of sixteen atolls and coral islands in the western Pacific Ocean. They are part of Remote Oceania , and traditionally part of the Micronesia subregion of Oceania . The Gilbert Islands are

1007-520: The French captain Louis Duperrey became the first to map the whole Gilbert Islands archipelago. He commanded La Coquille , circumnavigating the globe between 1822 and 1825. The first recorded sighting by Europeans of an Ellice Island was on 16 January 1568, during the voyage of Álvaro de Mendaña from Spain, who sailed past Nui and charted it as Isla de Jesús (Spanish for "Island of Jesus") because

1060-569: The GEIC. The Ellice Islands comprise three reef islands and six true atolls , spread out between the latitude of 5° to 10° south and longitude of 176° to 180° , west of the International Date Line . The Ellice Islands are midway between Hawaii and Australia , and they, too, lie in the Polynesia subregion of Oceania. In 1568, when Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira

1113-702: The Gilbert and Ellice Islands included: Ships of the Royal Navy , on the Australian Station , were involved in suppressing the coercive labour recruitment practices, known as blackbirding in the South Pacific Ocean. 1872, from 10 to 14 October, the sloop HMS  Blanche  (1867) , under Captain Cortland Herbert Simpson, visited Tawara, Abaiang and Butaritari. Also in 1872, the sloop Basilisk  (1848) , under Captain John Moresby , visited

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1166-657: The Gilberts on 17 June 1788. In a 1944 article in Life Samuel Eliot Morison wrote that this Island was told to be Abemama , but might have been Aranuka . Gilbert visited Tarawa on 20 June 1788. Sketches he made survive. The First, Second and Third Thomas Shoals in the Spratly Islands are named after Gilbert. They, along with the Scarborough shoal , were discovered during the Scarborough's voyages through

1219-583: The Gilberts, and the corvette HMS  Barossa  (1860) , under Captain Lewis James Moore, visited Tabiteuea. 1873, from 28 to 30 June, the schooner HMS  Alacrity  (1872) , under Captain Francis W. Sanders, lands islanders on Tabiteuea and Maiana who had been kidnapped in 1871 by the brig Carl . The screw sloop HMS  Dido  (1869) also visited the Gilberts in 1873. 1874, in August,

1272-612: The Gilberts. SMS Eber of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), was sent to the Pacific to serve in the German colonial empire . In 1888 she visited the Gilberts, and also disarmed the inhabitants of Nauru , ending their civil war and annexing the island to the German Empire. 1891, the steam corvette SMS Alexandrine visited the Gilberts (Marakei, Tawara, Abaiang, Abemama and Tabiteuea). Also in 1891,

1325-551: The Governor of one of the Australian colonies to have the authority to licence British vessels in the South Pacific Ocean to carry "native labourers". The 1875 Act amended that licensing system and stated that any "British vessel may, under the principal Act, be detained, seized, and brought in for adjudication by any officer, all goods and effects found on board such vessel may also be detained, seized, and brought in for adjudication by such officer, either with or without such vessel" with

1378-528: The Kingsmill Islands or Kingsmill Group in English). While in the Gilberts, they devoted considerable time to mapping and charting reefs and anchorages. Alfred Thomas Agate made drawings of men of Butaritari and Makin . In 1876 Britain and Germany agreed to divide up the western and central Pacific, with each claiming a 'sphere of influence'. In the previous decade German traders had become active in

1431-409: The Pacific Ocean not being within Her Majesty's dominions, nor within the jurisdiction of any civilized power, in the same and as ample a manner as if such power or jurisdiction had been acquired by the cession or conquest of territory", although the 1875 Act did not specify any Pacific islands to which this authority was to be applied. The 1872 & 1875 Acts were intended to work in conjunction with

1484-490: The Union Islands (now known as Tokelau ); Christmas Island was included in 1919 but was unofficially contested by the USA under its Guano Islands Act of 1856. The Union Islands were transferred to New Zealand in 1926, but formally only in 1948. The Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony continued to be administered by a Resident Commissioner. In 1930 the Resident Commissioner, Arthur Grimble , issued revised laws, Regulations for

1537-597: The United States in Butaritari , Captain Edward Davis of HMS  Royalist made the sixteen islands of the Gilbert Islands a British protectorate . Between 9 and 16 October of the same year, Captain Herbert Gibson of HMS  Curacoa declared the Ellice Islands to be a British protectorate. The British government found it administratively convenient to govern the Ellice and Gilberts islands together. At first,

1590-408: The United States officially annexed Swains Island as part of the territory of American Samoa . On 11 February 1926, an Order in Council transferred responsibility for administration of the Union Islands (Tokelau) to New Zealand which in turn placed administration of the islands under its Western Samoan mandate. Fanning Island and Washington Island also became included in the colony together with

1643-525: The atolls as Lagoon Islands . Nanumea was sighted by Spanish naval officer Francisco Mourelle de la Rúa who sailed past it on 5 May 1781 with frigate La Princesa , when attempting a southern crossing of the Pacific from the Philippines to New Spain . He charted Nanumea as San Augustin . In 1809, Captain Patterson in the brig Elizabeth sighted Nanumea while passing through the northern Tuvalu waters on

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1696-488: The creation in 1963 of an Advisory Council of five officials and 12 representatives who were appointed by the Resident Commissioner. In 1964 an Executive Council was established with eight officials and eight representatives. The representative members were elected in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Advisory Council election held in 1964. The Resident Commissioner was now required to consult the Executive Council regarding

1749-461: The creation of laws to make decisions that affected the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony. Thomas Gilbert (captain) Thomas Gilbert was an 18th-century British mariner. The Republic of Kiribati (and the constituent Gilbert Islands ) is named after him. Thomas Gilbert and John Marshall were the captains of two East India Company vessels of the First Fleet , the Charlotte and

1802-456: The good Order and Cleanliness of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands , which replaced laws created during the BWTP. In the 1930s, British officials tried to choose a less cumbersome name for the GEIC. Critics jocularly called the arbitrary collection of atolls scattered across the central Pacific the " Gilbert and Sullivans " (a reference to the famous light opera composers). One official suggested renaming

1855-529: The gunboat SMS  Wolf  (1878) visited Tawara, Abaiang and Maiana, and the cruiser SMS Sperber visited Butaritari, Maiana and Tabiteuea. In 1872, the United Kingdom passed legislation in an attempt to control the coercive labour recruitment practices known as blackbirding : the Pacific Islanders Protection Act 1872 (the principal Act), which was amended by the Pacific Islanders Protection Act 1875. The principal Act provided for

1908-413: The islands "Quateria" (after the word "quarters"), because the main inhabited archipelago extends over four notable quarters of the globe: It lies partly north and partly south of the equator, and also partly east and partly west of the international dateline. There were indigenous names, such as Tungaru and Tuvalu , but they were used to refer to only some of the islands in the group; they did not include

1961-460: The land commissioner of the colony, considered the then colony overcrowded. The Phoenix Islands were added to the colony in 1937 with the view of a Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme . On 6 August 1936, a party from HMS Leith landed on Canton Island in the Phoenix Group and planted a sign asserting British sovereignty in the name of King Edward VIII . On 18 March 1937, Great Britain annexed

2014-604: The main part of what is now the Republic of Kiribati ("Kiribati" is the Gilbertese rendition of "Gilberts" ) The atolls of the Gilbert Islands are arranged in an approximate north-to-south line. Geographically, the Equator is the dividing line between the northern Gilbert Islands and the southern Gilbert Islands. South of the Gilbert Islands lie the Ellice Islands (now called Tuvalu ), which were previously politically connected as part of

2067-403: The maladministration of Telfer Campbell, linked it to criticisms of the Pacific Phosphate Company , which was operating on Ocean Island , and challenged Mahaffy's impartiality, because he was a former colonial official in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Protectorate. In 1908, the government's headquarters was moved to Ocean Island (today known as Banaba ). Ocean Island had been hastily added to

2120-510: The mostly uninhabited Phoenix and Line island groups, or Banaba (also called Ocean Island), whose phosphate rocks provided half of the GEIC's tax revenue. Further complicating the naming problem, the Tokelau atolls were made part of the colony for a decade (1916–1926), and at one point a governor of Fiji, Sir J.B. Thurston , suggested adding Rotuma to the colony to enable a more organized administration of islands that were scattered over such

2173-469: The murders in 1874, of Cornelius Sullivan on Tarawa, and St. John C. Keyes on Abaiang. The screw sloop HMS  Sappho  (1873) , under Commander Noel Stephen Fox Digby, was also sent to the Gilberts in support of HMS Renard . 1881, from 13 May to 6 June, the corvette HMS Emerald  (1876) , under Captain William Maxwell , visited the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. 1883, from 26 May to 10 June,

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2226-552: The previous day was the feast of the Holy Name . Mendaña made contact with the islanders but was unable to land. During Mendaña's second voyage across the Pacific, he passed Niulakita on 29 August 1595, which he named La Solitaria . Captain John Byron passed through the Ellice islands in 1764, during his circumnavigation of the globe as captain of the Dolphin  (1751) . He charted

2279-421: The protectorate in 1900 to take advantage of the improved shipping connections resulting from the Pacific Phosphate Company 's increased activities. On 12 January 1916, the islands' status was changed to that of a Crown Colony. The British colonial authorities emphasised that their role was to procure labour for phosphate mining on Ocean Island, and to maintain law and order among the workers. The islands became

2332-467: The screw sloop HMS  Rosario  (1860) , under Commander Arthur Edward Dupuis, visited Tawara and Abaiang searching for William "Bully" Hayes , who was notorious for his blackbirding activities. 1875, the survey ship HMS  Myrmidon  (1867) , under Commander Richard Hare, visited the Gilberts. 1876, from April to June, the schooner HMS  Renard  (1873) , under Lieutenant Horace J. M. Pugh, visited Abaiang and Tawara, regarding

2385-617: The screw sloop HMS  Royalist , under Captain Edward Davis , visited the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. 1825, the schooner USS  Dolphin  (1821) , under Lieutenant Hiram Paulding , visited Nikunau and Tabiteuea. 1870, from 15 to 26 May, the sloop USS  Jamestown  (1844) , under Captain William Truxtun, visited Tawara, Abaiang and Butaritari. 1872, in August, the sloop USS  Narragansett  (1859) visited Nikunau, Beru, Tabiteuea, Abaiang and Tawara. 1889,

2438-506: The sloop HMS  Espiegle  (1880) , under Captain Cyprian Bridge , visited the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. 1884, from 13 June to 26 July, the survey ship HMS  Dart  (1882) , under Lieutenant-Commander W. W. Moore, visited the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. 1886, from 10 May to 26 June, the sloop HMS  Miranda , under Commander Eustace Rooke, visited the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. 1892, from 14 April to 30 August,

2491-491: The steam powered sloop USS  Iroquois  (1859) visited Butaritari. 1874, the corvette L'Ariane visited Arorae and Ocean Island . 1888, the cruiser Le Fabert , under Commander Benoit, visited Nikunau, Nonouti and Butaritari to deliver Father Joseph Leray, Father Edward Bontemps and Brother Conrad Weber, Roman Catholic Missionaries of the Sacred Heart , who were the first Roman Catholic missionaries to arrive in

2544-671: The uninhabited Phoenix Islands (except Howland and Baker Islands ) to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony. Banaba (Ocean Island) remained the headquarters of the colony until the British evacuation in 1942 during the Pacific War when Ocean Island and the Gilbert Islands were occupied by the Japanese . The United States forces landed in Funafuti on 2 October 1942 and on Nanumea and Nukufetau in August 1943 and constructed an airfield on each island and other bases. The atolls of Tuvalu acted as

2597-601: Was applied to all nine islands in the Ellice Island group, which is now called Tuvalu . Two ships of the United States Exploring Expedition , USS  Peacock  (1828) and USS  Flying Fish  (1838) , under the command of Captain Hudson, surveyed the Gilbert Islands of Tabiteuea , Nonouti , Aranuka , Maiana , Abemama , Kuria , Tarawa , Marakei , Butaritari , and Makin (then called

2650-437: Was commissioned to explore the South Pacific, he sailed relatively close to the Gilbert Islands. He sailed between the Line Islands and the Phoenix Islands , but without sighting land. He ultimately sailed past what he called "Isla de Jesús", (probably Nui , amongst the Ellice island group ). In 1606, Pedro Fernandes de Queirós sighted two of the islands in the Gilbert island group: Butaritari and Makin , which he named

2703-444: Was criticised for his legislative, judicial and administrative management. It was alleged that he extracted forced labour from the islanders. An inquiry into this allegation was held by Arthur Mahaffy , a former district officer in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands (1896–1898) and Solomon Islands (1898-1904), and he issued his findings, which were published in 1910. In 1913, an anonymous correspondent to The New Age journal described

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2756-488: Was imprisoned and killed. The Gilbert and Ellice Islands were separated administratively in the 1970s to become the independent Commonwealth nations of Kiribati and Tuvalu , and their Scouting movements took different paths. The highest rank is the President's Award , a title common to ranks in other nations. The membership badge of the Kiribati Scout Association features a green coconut . Gilbert and Ellice Islands The Gilbert and Ellice Islands ( GEIC as

2809-444: Was replaced as Resident Commissioner by Henry Evans Maude (1946 to 1949). He was succeeded by John Peel , who retired in 1951. By the Tokelau Act of 1948 , sovereignty over Tokelau was transferred to New Zealand. The five islands of the Central and Southern Line Islands were added to the colony in 1972. In 1946, Tarawa , in the Gilbert Islands, was made the administrative capital, replacing Ocean Island. The headquarters of

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