Mr Keith Woodward, OBE, arrived in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) as an Oxford graduate in 1953 to begin his career with the British Residency. He was subsequently promoted through the New Hebrides British Service and by the 1970s he had been appointed Secretary for Political Affairs coincided with rapid constitutional change in Vanuatu as the territory moved towards independence. The manuscript written by Mr Woodward documents, with compelling detail, these constitutional changes. Up until the 1950s the New Hebrides had no representative form of government. This began to change in 1957 with the formation of an Advisory Council and Mr Woodward provides an insightful overview into its composition and functions. However, most of Mr Woodward's manuscript concentrates on the constitutional changes that occurred in response to growing ni-Vanuatu (indigenous) demands for independence in the early to mid 1970s. These include the formation of a Representative Assembly comprised of a majority of elected members in 1975 to succeed the Advisory Council, the Vanuaaku Pati's (VP) (main independence political party) boycott of the 1977 elections and the subsequent proclamation of a Peoples Provisional Government (PPG), and the political movements as they established their respective constitutional positions regarding the transistion to national independence. Mr Woodwards analysis of this crucial period in Vanuatu political and constitutional history provides an important framework in which to contextualise the last two turbulent years of condominium rule, independence in 1980 and the political climate of the early 1980s.

<I>Historical Summary of Constitutional Advance in the New Hebrides, 1954 - 1977</I>; 77 typescript pages.