“Deportation a Sovereign Right”

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 109, 29 July 1927, Page 13

“Deportation a Sovereign Right”

POWERS IN SAMOA UPPER HOUSE DISCUSSION j Press Association. WELLINGTON, Thursday. In the Legislative Council this afternoon Sir Francis Bell moved the second reading of the Samoa. Amendment Bill. Sir Francis said he regretted a division of parties on the question, and said it had been hoped all New Zealanders would present a united front. It would appear later that the Government had responsibility in a right cause, and that others had supported the cause of exploiters. Power to deport aliens, he said, was a power inherent in the sovereign of the nation; power to expel residents who were engaged in preventing the exercise of Governmental authority was more exceptional, but existed as a necessary part of the right of the sovereign authority. Exactly the same powers as those proposed in the Bill were conferred upon the High Commissioner of the Western Pacific. Sir Edwin Mitchelson said the Hon. O. F- Nelson was responsible for the trouble, and there would be no peace in Samoa until he was got rid of. He hoped the Government would lose no time in deporting agitators. LABOUR PARTY ATTACKED The Hon. L. M. Isitt attacked members of the Labour Party, declaring that they were now embracing capitalists against whom they had thundered for years. Mr. Isitt denounced Sir Joseph Carruthers’s pronouncement upon conditions in Samoa as irresponsible, reckless, and inconsiderate, and added that Mr. R. C. Clark must feel that he had spoken before being fully seized of the facts. Sir James Allen said it was apparent at the time of the Parliamentary visit to Samoa some years ago that the present trouble was brewing, and had been brewing for some time before. This was a .problem that should be kept right outside party politics. He paid a warm tribute to the work of Sir George Richardson. Harshness had no place in his nature. The Bill was really a modification of the regulations or ordinance already in existence. A POLITICAL PRECAUTION Replying, Sir Francis Bell said if any person was preventing or hindering the due performance by the Government of its functions and duties under the terms of the mandate, or the due administration of the executive government of the territory, it was undesirable that he should remain in Samoa. He quoted the opinion of a judge of the High Court of Australia that deportation was to be enacted not as a punishment for crime, but as a political precaution. The Bill was read a second time. The committee stage of the Bill will be taken tomorrow afternoon.