management (including allegations of forced labour exacted from islanders) and became the subject of the 1909 report by Arthur Mahaffy. In 1913 an anonymous correspondent to The New Age journal described the mis-administration of Telfer Campbell and challenged the impartiality of Arthur Mahaffy as he was a former colonial official in the Gilberts.

In 1915, starting from 1916, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands were proclaimed a colony