BEAUTIFUL ISLANDS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2243, 1 September 1914, Page 6

BEAUTIFUL ISLANDS.

THEIR CHEQUERE® HISTORY. POLITICAL TROUBLES. ! > PARTITION BY THE POWERS: Though not of great extent, the islands of tho Snmoan Archipelago are of some, importance, from the commercial point of view, arid fop that reason and on account of their strategical position have long occupied the attention of three great Powers —Britain, America, and Germany—and more than one© in their liistoTy have given rise to a critical international situation. Politics, apart, the islands are rich in natural beauties, and in many Tespeots favoured 1 by Nature. The archipelago lies north of Tonga, and nearly midway between the New Hebrides and Tahiti, 1600 miles from Auckland, 2410 from Sydney, and 4200 from San Francisco. It consists of 14 islands, which take tho fonn of a slightly curved chain from W. by N. .to E. by S. The islands are:—Savaii, Mauono, Apolima, Updo, Fanuatapu, Manua, Nuutele, and Nuulua (which up to the present have belonged to Germany), and' Tutuila, Anua, Ofu, Olosonga, Tau, and Rose, belonging to the United States. The principal is--1 lands are Savaii (660 squaro miles), . TJpolo (840 square miles), Tutuila (54 i square miles), and the Manua group, 1 which includes Tau, with Ofu ana Oboscnga (25 square miles). With the exception of Hose Island, a coral islet 1 lying 70 miles E. of its nearest neigh--1 bour, all tho islands are considerably j elevated, with' soveral'extinct or quies- , cent craters, rising from 2000 feet in TJpolo to 4000 (Jlua) in Savaii. Al- . though there are no activo cones, TJpolo , lias been in comparatively recent times ) subject to voloanic disturbances, and to a loaal tradition outbreaks

mist have occurred in. the 17th and 18th oenturie3._ In 1868 a submarine vol;ano neaa - the islet of Obosenga was the scene of a violent commotion, discharging rocks and mud to a height of 200Q feet Earthquakes are' common 1 ana sometimes severe. The whole Samoan. group is abundantly watered and the igneous soil is marvellously fertile. The ecener.v of the islands is extremely beautiful. (Jpolo is long and _ narrow; it has a backbone, of mountains whose flanks aTe scored > with lovely valleys, at the foot of which are flat cultivable tracts. Of its harbours Apia and Saluafata,. both on the north ooast, are most important. Tutuila, the principal island belonging to the United States, resembles Upolo and- has on its south side the harbour of Pago Pago, the finest in the group and an American coaling station. Hie climate' of the group is pleasant on the whole, though moist and sometimes oppressively hot. The Samoan forests are remarkable for the size and variety of their trees and the luxuriance ana beauty of tree-ferns, creepers, and parasites. The ooconut, palm, and breadfruit are of peculiar value to the inhabitants ; there aro 16 varieties of the one and i. twenty of the other. Hard timber trees, of use in boat-building, etc., aro especially characteristic of Savaii. TRADE AND POPULATION. The population of the German islands in 1912 was 35,000, distributed as follows :—Upolo, Manono, and Apolima, 20,062; Savaii, 12,816.. There were in 1913, 544 whito inhabitants (329 German, 132 British) j also 1354 Chinese and 1003 non-native inhabitants of mixed raco. The revenue and expenditure for 1913 were estimated at about £56,500. The import/3 in 1912 were valued at £251,263, and the exports at £252,224. The imports are chiefly haberdashery, keroßfjio, provisions, etc., mainly from Australia and Now Zealand. The chief exports are copra and coeoarbeans. The trade i,r the American Samoan ■islnnds in 1912 was small by comparison. Imports amounted to about £28,000 and oxports to some £26,425. i Gorman Samoa has been ruled by an Imperial Governor (Dr. E. Scliultz) and a Govemmant Council containing eipjht unofficial members (three of whom are British) chosen by tho Governor from atgopjj the settlers..

There are no fortifioatioM at 'Apia >r elsewhere in the German Islands. THE WIRELEBS STATION. 'A 1 primary objeot of the expedition . vhich. has fust terminated successfully vas tho capture of the wireless station, it Apia, one of. the ohain which the Jermans have established In the Pacilo. Other stations haTe been estabished at Nauru (Marshall Islands), Rajano (German Now Guinea), and Yap Caroline Islands), The station at i.pia is said to be very high-powered. The installation of a wireless plant at ipia was hastoned by the minor dis-' ;urbances of 1909 (mentioned below), which illustrated' afresh the laok of jommunicationß with the German South 3ea colonies. Telegrams to New Guilea, as things then stood, bad to be shipped from Sydney, and telegrams .to Samoa from Fiji or New Zealand. The East Caroline and Marshall Islands revived mails only six times a year. The ;aying of oables waß regarded as too jostly, but- the "Cologne Gazotto" (in A.pril, 1909) stated that, the German Colonial Office was making arrangements for the erection of wireless telegraphy stations which would provide »mmunication between the islands andwith the international cable system. SAMOAN POLITICS INTERNATIONAL RIVALRIES. Ono of the most interesting books ivhioh has been written about Samoa in recent years' is "Samoa 'Uma" (tho Real: Samoa), by Mrs. Churchill, the irife of a former American Consul at the Islands. "It has been tho luckiof Samoa," Mrs. Churchill remarks, "to Dccupy a most inordinate place in the innals of modern times. The archipelago has been the theme of a mountain of publio documents, and of private impressions of the globe-trotter, and nf the two it would be difficult to say which conveys the more erroneous impression. Great nations have more than once been brought to the edge of war over this little nation; and the actual hostilities were prevented by no less a force than the powers of tho air, which filled Apia harbour with a marine. disaster so deadly that few of the. historic sea-fights can show such a roll of dead. ..." The presence of the United States in Samoa, according to Mrs. Churchill, is, accounted for by the fact that the islands were a convenient port of call for, whalers. The whalers were followed by consuls to arrange their disputes, and thus the' United States found themselves committed to a nosition in Samoa which has been, Bhfi declares, a source of unmitigated trouble. Thu Presenoo of the English. "How it happened that the English had interests in Samoa is one of those things that scarcely need explanation. It is, quite the usual thing to find the British Empire, 'morning drum-beat' and all, fraetioned off all over the world, protecting this spot, annexing that, and generally with a managing director's concern in tho affairs of a weaker people. The position of Samoa in relation to lines of South Pacific navigation before tho universal employment of steam, and in particular it's position in reference to Australia and New Zealand, is sufficient to account, for the interested presence of the English." The Cerman ; Achievement. It was commercial enterprise that took tho Germans to Samoa, and Mr. Churchill gives credit for the enterprise to one Theodore ■ Woljpr. It was not Germany that went out into the South Sea and carved out an Empire, she says. At that ,time there was no Germany. There were no more than.Germanio kingdoms and petty duohies md principalities. Above all were the free cities of which Hamburg Btood foremost and out of Hamburg oame Theodor Webor. He found Samoa and annexed it to the Rrma Godeffroy,. whose servant he was, John and Caesar Godeffroy. Webor established a highly remunerative trade, and was made C-pnsul for' Hamburg, later of the North Gorman Confederation. and still later Consul for the Gorman Empire. Eventually the business ohanfeed . hands, but Weber laid the foundations bo well that the firm never made a mistake when following along his lines. Ho filled the unoccupied island in the Paoific with his trading establishments, and crowded out rivals. "Then, when Germany awolke to & Colonial, policy, the first thing was' to annex from Theodor Weber all tho embryo colonics which ho had, been arranging for;" i Weber had won all the trade, but there were treaties in existence with Groat Britain, and the United States, and. these were beyond tne reach of the resident manager for Godoffroy'pGermany l had a practical ownership of Samoa, out ooula not assume the con* duct of affairs because of the pre6encß of the two other treaty. Powers. Meantime the native population were engaged in a series of petty civil wars, which greatly ' interfered with • their prosperity, over the claims of - rival aspirants to the throne. This epoch, Mrs. Churchill' declares was characterised by many singularly ' bloodless battles and an enormous combustion of very • expensive powder in very oheap muskets. The epoch terminated on March 16,' 1889, tho day of the hurrioane in Apia Harbonr. "The Samoan figureheads of this particular chapter of trouble were .Tamasese, King .. of Samoa, with German backing openly avowed,- and Mataafa, also a rival King of Samoa (with a strong proba-t bility of German: backing, but this war iiot suspected' at the time and is not yet acknowledged). A Day of Disaster. "Th« war of tho puppets was a little thing; the great thing was that this waxnad brought together seven warships of the United States, Germany, ana Great Britain, and-from moment to moment it was a tremendous strain to keep tho old Trenton and the Vandalia and tho Nip6ic from measuring their wooden walls and obsolete armament against the steel walls of the German squadron. But a blast from the skies fell upon the situation and cleared it Tip. It was on thai day that the hurricane did its' greatest destruction, and made the pretty harbour of Apia famous. Seven ships were there when tho barometer gave abundant and timely warning of tne storm about to come, three American, throe German, and ono British. Had the warning been taken there need have been no disaster, for there was abundant time to run •to Tutuila, where the Pago Pago Harbour defies every gale that wows. But fighting blood was up, and no commander would be the first to run. When the gale was< over the German Olga was on tho beach, and later was floated off, the Eber lay at the bottom of the harbour, the Adler Vas high and dry, beam-end on the reef, where she is likely to , remain a grim monument so long as rivets and German stool can hold out against tho unrelenting war of time and rus ( t. Tho British Calliope as by a miraolo .won hor way to safety by the narrowest margin in the very teeth of the gale. Of tho American fleet the Trenton and tho Vandalia were wrecked beyond repair, while the Nipsio waß high on tho beaoh. ~ Agreement of tho Powers. "This shocked the world into a sonso of what was being done in this distant part of tho world, and saner thought folt that all Samoa was not worth this loss of life. Tho result was the agreement of tho three Powers under tho Berlin Aot. Almost before the Act was onaot-ed it proved itself but a. feeble pieco of paper, a commodity of which. Samoa politios had already a sufficiency. Yet in 1890 the Act wont-into .effect, and; it was

was to; be no more Samoan quostion. Still'there was a Samoan question, as .: there ever would bo so long as tho point at issue was unsettled, that being who should own Samoa. This point has been met at last, and settled in. the partition of Samoa." ' ! ' ■ • 'After the war of 1899 in which a • number of British and American officers and sailors were killed by the natives, the fiction of Samoan independence was laid aside and tho three Powers agreed to divido tho islands into as ; many parts. To Germany was allotted tfpolo, because of the preponderance of German interests in trade and plantations. Great Britain obtained Savaii,- ■ : % larger but less valuable island. America, according to Mrs. Churchill, drow the prize in being assigned Manua and I'utuila, because Pago Pago Harbour, to the latter island, is tho really solid Value of the whole archipelago. "As soon as this partition had.- been ratified, another agreement was filed whereby Great Britain conveyed Savaii to Germany in return for similarly transferred territory in tho Solomon Islands and the extinction of German rights in the adjacent kingdom of Tonga, which thereupon became a British, protectorate. Thus the settlement of the Samoan question availed to wipe out the last two independent native kingdoms on the face of tho globe—Samoa and Tonga." ' A'Recent Disturbance. Even in recent times the islands under German sway have not been free of political troubles. It. was officially announced in Berlin early in March, 1909; that in response to the request of the Governor of Samoa, three ships of the German East Asiatic Squadron under Admiral Coerberhad been ordered to Samoa; In connection with the quostion of succession to Mat'aafa, the aged native chief of Samoa (and Former "King','), there were signs of a movement against German hegemony. No disturbances, it was reported, had taken place and no fears- were enferjained of attacks on white settlers, but •In defiance of German regulations, a . Mass meeting was held by one Lauaki, frho was described as "a speaker of repute," at which'a protest was raised against the Government. The expectation was expressed that the' arrival of the German warships would suffice to procure the .punishment of the■ offenders and the restoration of order without fighting."; • ; As the outcome certain native chiefs,, ringleaders in the incipient disturbances which had taken ■ placed were captured, without fighting, and deported to other islands. Admiral Coerber's flagship, the 3ruiser Leipzig, remained for a time in the group, and the other: ships returned to Tsing-tau. A Reichstag Debate. The Samoan situation.was debated'in the Iteichstag on April 2,.1909. Before, the Colonial Estimates were voted, Herr' Dernberg .replied to criticisms of the Government's recent action in Samoa. The Centre Party Deputy, Herr Erzberger, asked whether it was true that the white population was in great danger, and the Free Conservative spokesman, Dr. Arendt, complained of the Government's refusal to issue arms to the German settlers. Germany would do better to abandon colonial policy altogether, lie said, than to trust to. the good dis-, position of the natives. Herr Dernberg denied that the Colonial Office relied solely upon kindness ■—the natives must bo treated' with firmness and energy,, but also with justice. He was confident that the Governor would soon be'in full, control of the , situation. ■: The English' and the Americans .had found the Samoans' "a tough morsel." They now regarded themselves as under the protection of the German Empire, and maintained! that' they had ' accepted the ; Germansuzerainty of their own fri!S/f^i"Si^';t&ereip% r 'pp6^esEed : ' certain rights.' '.'■■' :•'"■";•'■•■ . Herr .Arendb 'was not satisfied, with this t statement, andexpressed; the:Kope : that;. the . presence ".of' German 1 "warships ' would tend to the conversion of Germany's, paper control of Samba into ef- ; fective control. . -.'.".■ , ' REGENT VISITOR'S STORY GERMAN-PRECAUTIONS AND ■•-.-'.■ NATIVE UNREST. One. of the best known of the Island traders, Captain ;E. E. Allen, of Apia, had an interesting story to tell on his arrival at Sydney by the Ventura-" a week ago. ~-.--.,, ..- 1 ■ "I was chased out of German Samoa," he said. "I was returning from the Ellice Islands in our company's' steamer the Dawn, and not having heard about the war I steered for Apia', which is my headquarters in the islands, I had just entered the harbour when', to my surprise, an.armed boat "mot me, and I was informed by the officials aboard ■of the war. They told, men that tie Governor" (Dr; Schultz) was sorry to ■ make trouble for mo, hut that I could . aiot land, nor hold any communication with the town, and that if I did not ateam away there and then I nnist do so before dark, or take the consequences.' Accordingly,'! cleared.for ■ Pago Pago, where the Dawn is now kid up. Two motor boats followed me along the coast till I got out'of German waters. There was no warship at the time in Apia harbour.' Apia is not' for-' tified, but-rifles have been distributed jmong all the German residents, and ;hey had an'-armed guard around the vireless station and the Government offices.; "The natives are in a state of unrest, 1 . and it is my belief that if there is any fighting down- ;there the Sanioans will pitch mto the Germans. Thoy have never cared for German rule. The last Governor, Dr. Solf, now Gorman Minister for tho Colonies, and the present Governor, have treated the natives with kindness, hut trouble has been caused by new officials, who do not understand how to deal with natives like Samoans. One law that has given rise to -much feeling- on tho part of tho Samoans as well as other people is that which mates marriages between German subjects' and Samoans or half-castes illegal. _ A number of Germans who have been in the group for some years aro' married to natives or half-castes, and thus there are-two factions.among the Germans themselves; wliilo the natives are: naturally very resentful. "Communication between Pago Pago and Apia is cut off, and the postal officials in Apia have held np all correspondence.. The. Germans are taking every possible precaution against information leaking out through native ' sources." At a meeting of tho Land Values. League hold last evening, Mr. P. J. O'Regan presiding, tho following resolution was carried unanimously:—"That this league learns with pleasure that a deputation is to wait on the Premier to urgo the abolition of the taxes on ' flour and other necessaries of life. This ( league further congratulates.-. Mr: ' M'Combs, M.P., upon his determination to move an amendment to the Customs Duties Bill for the abolition of the flour tax." ] A gift of a gramaphoiio and records | would prove very acceptable to the' ttpops_on board the troopship Orari, as. j there is no piano aboard this ship. Inquiries have been mado by tho Miu- ] sister'of Defence regarding the com- , plaint that some of tho boots issued at ,-he Epsom camp were of inferior qual- r [ty. --Mr. Allen stated yesterday that ' no had ascertained that none of tho r , boots -.furnished by Auckland factories .were in any way unsatisfactory. In- r juiries were being mado as to whether ' those supplied by other firms were equal ■■ to tho required standard of quality. J i Mr:. A. S. Evans, of Pahiatua, has .( forwarded a box of books and magazines ;or the use of the Expeditionary Force. Tor Children's Hacking Coughs at Night .. .Woods' Great Peppermint Cure, Is. 6d,* ■)