West Cork Rare BookfairINANNA MODERNWest Cork Reading Holidays
We ship per DHL Express

We ship per DHL Express

13 – British Pacific (1938 – 1947) (23 items)

[Fiji – British Western Pacific]: July 1938 – April 1943 [but some items still relate as far as 1947]

The following year Luke was offered the governorship of Mauritius, but refused on the understanding that he would be considered for the impending vacancy in Cyprus. This position subsequently went elsewhere, and in 1938 he became Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner in the Western Pacific.

Regretful at leaving the Mediterranean, Luke was none the less ‘thankful to be done’ with its embittered politics (Luke, Cities and Men, Volume 3, page 112). The Western Pacific had its own political problems, not least those posed by relations with the French. Tensions on this front eased when the administration in New Caledonia adhered to the Gaullist cause after June 1940, and Luke’s own Francophilia and savoir-faire assisted matters thereafter. Supervision of the local war effort did not stop Luke visiting every part of his hugely dispersed domain, except for remote Pitcairn Island. In June 1942 Luke resigned from his position. In thanking him for his services, the secretary of state for colonies highlighted the contribution he had played in preparing Malta for the present ordeal of war” (Holland)


Luke was a DLitt of Oxford in 1938

Luke was promoted to KCMG in 1939

Retirement from [official] Colonial Service

Luke, From a South Seas Diary: 1938-1942.

23. [Pacific Content / Gardner Island] – Luke, Harry Charles / Sir Harry Luke / [Gerald Gallagher on Nikumaroro (Gardner Island) / Patrick Jay Hurley – United States Minister to New Zealand].

From a South Seas Diary: 1938-1942. [Personal Working copy Number One without Index / “Review copy” of Sir Harry Luke – with very many annotations, additions and corrections which led to the ultimate finished print (this working copy has no Index yet) / With Three (3) Letters loosely inserted of which one is regarding funds for a bronze plaque for Gerald Gallaghaer’s grave on Nikumaroro (Gardner Island) / With Two (2) manuscript notes loosely inserted / With one handmade and handpainted bookmark signed and gifted Christmas 1941 by Cottrell-Dormer, Cox of the Iririki Hospital (Cottrell-Dormer is also mentioned in the Preface) / With a tipped-in Typescript on page 233, regarding the unannounced visit to Suva by United States Minister to New Zealand, Patrick Jay Hurley, on his way to take office. This typescript was clearly written to be included in the book but, for obvious reasons of diplomatic tact, never made it into the final publication. The typescript includes manuscript annotations by Luke and is a fine character-study of Patrick Hurley and his tendency to greet people with “an ear-piercing Indian war whoop or yell [Choctaw war crie, by Luke wrongly remembered as Osage Indian] / Luke rememberes in the typescript the spring of 1942: “About this time I was asked by Washington to look out for and put up, among many American military and naval notabilities who used to pass through Suva….crossing and recrossing the Pacific….So whenever a Catalina was sighted as being about to alight in Suva Harbour, my A.D.C. would hurry down to meet her…..One afternoon in 1942, Mungo dashed off to meet such an aircraft and did not return empty. Into the drawing-room of Government House strode a tall….flamboyant figure…General Hurley soon gave me to understand that in his private opinion Oklahoma was the only State in the Union that really mattered, an opinion which in the circumstances seemed an entirely proper one for him to cherish”.

[This item is part of the Sir Harry Luke – Archive / Collection]. London, Nicholson & Watson, 1945. 19 cm x 12,5 cm. 252 pages with 185 photographs by the author. Original Softcover with original dustjacket in protective Mylar. Harry Luke’s (Lukach) personal copy. With annotations and markings by Harry Luke. Split hinge, almost detached. Otherwise in fair condition.

EUR 275.000,-- 

Show details   Add to cart

Page: 1 2 3
: