Editing History of Kiribati (section)

===Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony===

The islands became a [[Crown Colony]] on 12 January 1916 by the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Order in Council, 1915.<ref name="PIPA">{{cite web| last =(Imperial).  | title = Pacific Islanders Protection Act, ss. 6–11|date=1875| url= http://nationalunitygovernment.org/content/pacific-islanders-protection-act-1875| access-date=20 January 2015}}</ref> [[Kiritimati|Christmas Island]] was included in the colony in 1919 although it was contested by the U.S. under the [[Guano Islands Act]] of 1856.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.doi.gov/oia/Islandpages/disputedpage.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930014736/http://www.doi.gov/oia/Islandpages/disputedpage.htm |archive-date=30 September 2007 |title=FORMERLY DISPUTED ISLANDS |publisher=U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of Insular Affairs}}</ref> The [[Tokelau|Union Islands]] were unofficially transferred to New Zealand administration in 1926 and officially in 1948. The [[Phoenix Islands]] were added in 1937 and the five islands of the Central and Southern [[Line Islands]] were added in 1972.<ref name="Macdonald, B. K. 1982"/>

The Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony continued to be administered by a Resident Commissioner. One very famous colonial officer in the colony was Sir [[Arthur Grimble]] (1888–1956), at first as a cadet officer in 1914, under [[Edward Carlyon Eliot]] who was [[Resident Commissioner]] of the BWPT then the colony from 1913 to 1920. This period is described in Eliot's book "Broken Atoms" (autobiographical reminiscences) (Pub. G. Bles, London, 1938) and in Sir [[Arthur Grimble]]'s "[[A Pattern of Islands]]" (Pub. John Murray, London, 1952). [[Arthur Grimble]] became the [[Resident Commissioner]] of the colony in 1926. In 1930 Grimble, issued revised laws, ''Regulations for the good Order and Cleanliness of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands'', which replaced laws created during the BWPT.

Ocean Island remained the headquarters of the colony until the British evacuation in 1942 because of the [[Japanese occupation of the Gilbert Islands]]. After World War II, the colony headquarters was re-established on [[Tarawa]], first on [[Betio]] islet (then occupied by American forces following the [[Battle of Tarawa|Battle for Tarawa]]) and subsequently on [[Bairiki]].<ref name="Macdonald, B. K. 1982"/><ref>Maude, H. E., & Doran, E., Jr. (1966). The precedence of Tarawa Atoll. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 56, 269–289.</ref><ref>Williams, M., & Macdonald, B. K. (1985). The phosphateers: A history of the British Phosphate Commissioners and the Christmas Island Phosphate Commission. Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic.</ref>