SAMOA

Hokitika Guardian, 30 July 1927, Page 1

SAMOA

SIR JOSEPH CARRUTHERS STATEAIENT Cl! IT!Cl SEE.

WELLINGTON, July 28

Tlie recent denunciation of New Zealand’s administration of 'Western Samoa, by Sir Joseph Carruthers, exPreinicr of New South wales, was described by the Hon. Air Isitt in the

Legislative Council to-day as “highly improper, ill-considered and unfair.” In making his statement to the Press, said Air isitt, Sir Joseph was guilty of an impropriety which it was very difficult to characterise as it deserved io bo characterised. Sir Joseph, lie said, had remarked that it was the right of any Britisher to make his protest against what he deemed to he an unwarranted act of tyranny.

“He did not speak as an ordinary Britisher,” said Air Isitt, “hut as cxPremier of a sister colony of this Dominion. Tie spoke as a man who had access to our own Prime Alinistcr, and ho must have spoken with the full knowledge that his admonition of New Zealand’s conduct of the mandate would he eagerly seized upon by our enemies and cabled, as it has been, to the ends of the earth.” Yet after travelling from Sydney to Auckland with Air K. CL Smyth, one of the chief offenders. and a. member ol the Samoan Citizens' Cominitte, ho deliberately re. versed his judgment of the Samoan mandate which he had previously given to the Press.

The speaker quoted from newspaper extracts to show that Sir Joseph had given great praise to the Administration. declaring that “nothing that he saw would justify any criticism of the .Administration.” He had reversed his opinion in the face ot facts which he had gathered from his own observation. He. had given those facts without comment, and had asked people to draw their own conclusions and inferences from them. That same gentleman travelled from Fiji to New Zealand in the Alaunganui in company with Air Smyth and subsequently declared that in the Samoan Administration New Zealand had violated the. principles of British justice, and went, so tar as to accuse tho Administrator of stupid blundering and bankruptcy of statesmanship. Air Isitt expressed the opinon that Sir Joseph was guilty oY unpardonable indiscretion and of gross diseourtes' to this Dominion. His statement was criminal in its disregard for the possibility of how it was likely to he used by other nationalities. “I cannot imagine a more irresponsible, reckless, and inconsiderate act,” said Air Isitt, “than wlmt ho lias been guilty of.” (Hoar, hear.)

Tho speaker also made reference to the criticism of Mr 11. C. Clark, principal of Wesley Training College, who, be said, had been only two days in Samoa. When he realised the in«l i cret ion ho had committed, sanl Air Isitt. he believed Air Clark would be honest enough and straight enough to admit that lie had made a mistake, and that he. was indiscreet enough to talk about conditions in Samoa before he was seized with the facts.