SAMOAN POLICE FORCE
INSPECTION BY DEFENCE MINISTER' THE "HONOUR OP NEW ZEALAND" Tho Samoan Constabulary, 70 strong, left Wellington for Auckland by the Main Trunk express on Saturday. They will sail from Auckland by tho Navuri for Samoa. Prior to their departure they wero briethv addressed by Sir James Allen, Minister of Defence, who said he thought they knew that the Samoans belonged to the same race as our Maoris, the Polynesian race, and in many respects were like tlie Maori people—proud and dignified. We had a special duty towards them, because this was tho first time we wero taking over their civil administration! Samoa, since it was captured by us in 1!)14, had been under military occupation; now that was being changed. The constabulary wero tho first evidence of the great change that was being made there. Tho Samoan* were a peculiar people, hut they would learn to know them better after they had been there for some time. We hatl a great responsibility towards them, ami in that we were responsible to the League of Nations, to whom we had to report every year. The League of Nations would watch us very closely. It was our first experiment in Government beyond our own shores; we wero told thai wo could not do it. and we wanted to prove that wo could do it with success. Jlc wished to point "out to them that they a.s the constabulary would bo a most imixK-tam factor 111 the administration of Samoa. They wore going there as the representatives of the British race, to be trustees of the natives, to maintain justice in all times nml difficulties. They would come closely into contact with tho Samoan people—ho was not fc much concerned about the whites as about the natives—and he appealed to them (d look upon themselves first a; the instrument of New Zealand, and in carrying out their duties to act wife dignity, calmly, and firmly. The natives respected the dignified man, they should always be dignified. He wanted to see them tt fine, upstanding body of men, typical of Llio British race, and tlie best Now Zealand could produce. If tiiej did that they would help the Now flea ■;.and Goy-ramonf, very materially in laying the foundations of civilisation there. Whatever representation* they had to make should lie made to the Administrator, and_ they would aiways receive consideration. Tliey were "goinjj from here with iv vory spcoial mission.
"Mv messago to you is this," concluded Sir James Alien. "I look to you sjiceially t(> uphold the honuut- of Now Zeuland, and to lay the foundations of the civil administration Ultra with great success." TIo ivislieil thom a plen&int voyaprc, and hoped the people of New Zee loud, when they welcomed thorn back would he able to say, "Well done."
Major-General Sir Alfred Tioliin joined with Sir James Allen in what ho had raid, and lie wished them <is "the first net in the civil administration" every success, and themselves individually every success also. »
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Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 75, 22 December 1919, Page 8
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503SAMOAN POLICE FORCE Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 75, 22 December 1919, Page 8
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