An old friend of mine, himself a brat who had made the transition to GD/P, often reminded me that "You can always tell a brat, but you can't tell him much".
There's an interesting account of how "The First Fiji Contingent to the RAF" got into WWII in the latest edition of "Intercom", the magazine of the Aircrew Association. It took them 18 months to get into the War, including boat and train travel from Fiji, through NZ, to Australia, to South Africa to EFTS at Salisbury (Harare), with wings at the end of it. After arriving in Liverpool, they became trained aircrew and were posted on to the war effort.
One of the group, DPF McCaig, wrote "From Fiji to the Balkan Skies".