Salote Tupou III
Queen of Tonga
Feb 17, 2009 William Silvester
Salote was born on March 13, 1900, the daughter of the King of Tonga, George II Topou and Queen Lavinia Veiongo. The young princess was educated in New Zealand. She married her father's choice of consort, chief Tungi Mailefihi and in July 1918 gave birth to the first of three sons.
Queen of Tonga
Barely two months later King George died and the18 year old princess ascended to the throne in the early years of a century that bore the promise of great technological advancement already threatening to overwhelm her people. In the previous century the island group of Tonga had been subjected to deprivations from whalers, navy deserters, pirates, sandal wooders, and. blackbirders (slavers). In 1896 Tonga had fallen under the dominance of the British by a treaty giving Britain influence over Tongan foreign affairs.
The young queen, who had taken the title Queen Salote Tupou III, had barely taken the reins of power when tragedy struck the islands. The 1918-1919 influenza epidemic that swept the world also found its way to Tonga. In response she established a Department of Health in her government to deal with the crisis.
Government of Tonga
Opposing the new queen was a powerful clique of chiefs who saw her rein as a threat to their own power. These men were against her plans for a centralized government and in order to destabilize her efforts persisted in keeping old dynastic squabbling alive. It did not take Salote long to realize that many of the chiefs in power were not worthy of their positions. She therefore encouraged those who put the good of Tonga before themselves, were loyal to her and showed ability regardless of their rank. Through these methods she built a strong following of supporters and won the confidence of influential people.
Following the establishment of the Health Department in 1919, Salote went on the reorganize the Department of Education taking advantage of the laws that provided for compulsory and free education and did her best for even the poorest of her subjects.
World War II
During the Second World War as the tentacles of the Japanese occupation forces spread out over Asia and the Pacific, a challenge of a different kind confronted Salote. Within a year of the attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor, the United States and New Zealand had established a presence on Tonga using the island as a staging point for shipping. At the same time, Tonga had formed a local defence force that later saw action against the Japanese in the Solomon Islands Campaign.
After the war, Salote set about making some changes in the governing of her islands. Knowing that one day her son, Crown Prince Siaosi Taufa'ahau Tupoulahi, would be king she had appointed him Minister of Education and later, Minister of Health. In 1949 Siaosi became her Premier despite the fact that he was developing some Eurocentric views that she did not totally agree with.
Great Lo’au
The regard for which her people held her was demonstrated in the great Lo'au of 1959. The chiefs and the people had long vied with each other to carry out her slightest desire. Hundreds of chiefs from all 150 islands in the Tonga group congregated to honour her and show their total acceptance of her as the highest chief.
The last years of Queen Salote's reign were happy ones as she doted on her grandchildren and left much of the reigning duties to her son the Crown Prince. The slow erosion of Tongan values saddened her as the islands came to rely more and more on the west but she was able through her own example to preserve much that she cherished and help her people retain a sense of identity which many other Polynesian cultures had lost.
Her people mourned the loss of their beloved queen when she died in Auckland, New Zealand in December 1965. Due to her foresight the transition of power to her son was accomplished smoothly as the Crown Prince became King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV a position he had held in reality for over 29 years.
Bibliography
Elizabeth Wood-Ellem – Queen Salote of Tonga – Auckland University - 1999
Kenneth Ross Bain – The Friendly Islanders: a Story of Queen Salote and Her People – Hodder & Stoughton - 1967
Queen Salote of Tonga
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