Catalogue description British Phosphate Commissioners

This series consists of the United Kingdom Phosphate Commissioner's Office papers. They include annual, general and technical reports, accounts, minutes of meetings and memoranda, correspondence between the United Kingdom, Australian and New Zealand Commissioners and the General and London Managers, correspondence with U.K. Government Departments, correspondence relating to the litigation in respect of the Banaban claims and records of the High Court proceedings, photographs and commercial publications relating to the Islands.

The first three of the latter, now rare publications, were written by Sir Albert F. Ellis, C.M.G., F.R.G.S. who toured the Islands c.1900 and was probably the first to appreciate the full potential of the phosphate deposits. Sir Albert F. Ellis was subsequently appointed the first New Zealand Commissioner.

See also DO 118