Choiseul Province for the island are Choiseul and Lauru. San Marcos is not commonly used at this present day. Choiseul Province was initially not part of the British Solomon Islands. Like Buka, Bougainville (both now part of Papua New Guinea's North Solomons Province), Santa Isabel, and the Ontong Islands, it was part of the German Solomon Islands in 1884. Fifteen years later, in 1899, Germany ceded Choiseul, Isabel and Ontong Java to the British to become part of the British Solomon Islands. In 1900, Charles Woodford, the Resident Commissioner for the Solomon Islands sailed to Choiseul via Isabel on a ship named
Malaita massacre were selected to make up the civilian force. They were issued with .303 rifles and given intensive training. The District Officer of Guadalcanal, C.E.J. Wilson, who had a reputation for roughness from his treatment of some resistance on Guadalcanal, was given orders to patrol the coast of Malaita to gather information. Some village constables returned with Wilson and pleaded that those who had paid their taxes (listed in Bell's tax rolls) the day before not be punished. These people were already in coastal villages, anticipating an official retaliation. In Auki, the Malaitan district headquarters, 880 Malaitans had volunteered to participate