OUR MEN IN SAMOA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 76, 29 July 1915, Page 6

OUR MEN IN SAMOA.

LETTER FROM SERCT. PELHAM. } " Writing from Yaimea camp, Apia, Samqq ; to friends here, Sergeant 'Pqlhara, N.Z.M.C.* says; “The weather'is, much cooler now ;in fact, some nights are quite cold. We are short of. water in most camps. The rainy season here is in the summer, and during the winter there is practically no rain. The streams are polluted by natives washing them clothes in them,and consequently water has to be carried from springs. It would be good business for the Government to go in .for a water scheme to supply the town, as there are plenty «1 good streams in the hills, and water could laid on to Apia at very little expense. We have been baying some ■ trouble with Chinese, coolies. There is*a kind of Montagne-Capulet fend between two lots of Chinese here. They qorae from two provinces, Ysi-Yap and Tau Moon. In 1912 there was a fight between them, and they have had periodical scraps at intervals since. About a week ago there was a fight, each side being armed with long knives (machetes), which are used for cutting sugar-cane. Eight were badly wounded and a number arrested. On Friday we had news that about fifty Tau Moons were marching to fight Tsi Yaps, solve were sent out to intercept them. Each man carried rations for 21 hours and 100 rounds of ball cartridge. We toilikl all night and caught nothing. On Saturday afternoon they were reported to bo near the wireless, and so we went out again, but they had evidently heard ■we were coining and dispersed. \Ve had a lough time trying to find our way through the plantations in the dark, but got back to town about 7.30 p.m. On Sunday another party of our men went out, and they drew a blank as usual last week a Chinaman was found dead in a plantation, his head nearly, cut off by an axe. He was probably killed by a countryman of another tribe, but up to the present the, murderer has not been discovered. About a fortnight ago two Germans were arrested. One was the local storekeeper and the other a man claiming to be an American citizen who was leaving by a small schooner for Pago Pago, the American island. On searching his baggage they found letters written by tire German storekeeper and supposed to lie in code. The American got six months’ hard labor and the storekeeper six months, and it the war is not over at tlie end of the period be is to be kdpt in gaol. They are not being sent to New Zealand, but are imprisoned at the local military police 1 station.