The accepted European view of colonial rule in the 1920s and 1930s, contested only by a few dissident anthropologists and missionaries, was that it brought immense benefits to Islanders. In international law the South Seas consisted of territories under a variety of foreign jurisdictions. To understand Islands colonialism we must recognise the limitations of colonial power. Christian missions were strong and influential, often exercising quasi-governmental powers. Missions were far more significant mediators of modernisation than most governments. The Fijian Apolosi Nawai spent much of the interwar period exiled on Rotuma for his anti-British activities. Colonialism is perhaps better seen as the interaction of many competing ethnocentrisms, with European racial prejudice forming an overlay. Ethnocentrism was compounded by the fact that Samoan and Tongan missionaries commonly thought of themselves as bringing the Christian message to inferior peoples who desperately needed uplifting. The Fiji system was devised to solve the problem of labour without sacrificing economic development or Fijians themselves.