The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. TUESDAY, JULY 12, 1927. A SORRY STATE IN SAMOA

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 94, 12 July 1927, Page 10

The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. TUESDAY, JULY 12, 1927. A SORRY STATE IN SAMOA

IT is plain that conditions have reached a sorry state in respect of the administration of Western Samoa as an integral part of New Zealand under an international mandate. This is revealed by the presence of a leading citizen of Samoa in Auckland to-day and his frank statement to this journal concerning the cause and extent of unrest in the mandated territory. Whatever else may be said or thought about the lamentable business, Mr. O. P. Nelson certainly has stated a case that demands the immediate consideration of the Dominion Government and Parliament. Every fair-minded New Zealander who is interested in the duty of his Government to maintain law and order in Western Samoa and discharge its trust as a mandatory state without fear or favour should first realise clearly the reasons for Mr. Nelson’s visit to New Zealand. These strike at the very foundation of British justice and the liberty of the subject to criticise the administration of his country. Consider the position without prejudice: A member of the Legislative Council of Western Samoa has been compelled through rigorous and possibly stupid circumstances to come to New Zealand for the purpose of exercising the most cherished right of British citizens—freedom of speech. To secure that fundamental right he had to leave his home under an official threat of banishment. Unless the Government regains the common sense that formerly marked its service under the late Mr. Massey, it may be necessary for Mr. Nelson to wander far afield with his plea for a fair hearing and make an appeal to the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations at Geneva for justice. When the Supreme Council of the Allied and Associated Powers at Versailles some eight years ago resolved to give New Zealand the mandate over Western Samoa, the peacemakers, impressed by the strength of New Zealand’s claim to it, sincerely believed that they had made an end to harsh administration in the territory. Hitherto, the stories of unrest in Samoa have come from sources likely to be influenced by prejudice and selfish interests. Only one independent witness has proffered evidence on the question. This is Sir Joseph Carruthers, M.L.C., of New South Wales, but unfortunately his testimony was summarised stupidly in a message the other day from Suva. In the opinion of that unbiased observer conditions existed in Western Samoa which were contrary to British ideas. “There might be errors on both sides,” he declared at Suva, “but surely to goodness they were not so bankrupt in the arts of government as to fall back on a system which sets aside open trial and all the safeguards associated with British justice.” The Prime Minister should take the business in hand without delay and make an end to a quasi-militaristic administration, which shatters Magna Charta, and invests New Zealand administration with the taint that the mandate was designed to abolish for all time.