BOYCOTT BROKEN

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 148, 13 September 1927, Page 11

BOYCOTT BROKEN

SAMOA COMMISSION MR. NELSON CHANGES PLANS DECIDES TO PRESENT CASE THE fiasco threatened by the refusal of disaffected Samoan people to put their grievances before the Royal Commission now on its way to the Islands is to be averted by a change in the plars of the Hon. O. F. Neison, who has decided to leave for his home on Friday. He states that his earlier decision to boycott the commission, thus rendering it practically impotent, was reached at the instance of his legal advisers, and rather against his own judgment. Sir John Findlay, whom Mr. Nelson engaged to handle the case for the Citizens’ Committee, which has protested against the methods of the Ad- j ministration in Samoa, hold that the Government had been unfair to the complainants by its restriction of the ( scope of the commission's inquiry. He therefore urged the Citizens’ | Committee to have nothing to do with [ tli a commission’s investigations. Meanwhile the Government has so j far modified its attitude as t-> promise that the complainants shall have time to prepare their case, and Sir John , Findlay has acceded to Mr. Nelson's representations that the committee be ; now authorised to go ahead, and do the j best it can under the circumstances. j SAILING BY MARAMA By sailing for Sydney on Friday, by j the Marama, Mr. Nelson wil connect with the liner Sierra, by which he will ; reach Apia only a week after the com- i mission. He stated this morning that, in response to a series of letters and tele- ! grams, Sir John Findlay had at length ' concurred in his o\\n view that he j should return to Samoa. He had re- ( oeived the following telegram: “Received your telegram this morning and letters of Saturday and Sunday. In view of accusations against you in Prime Minister’s last letter delivered Saturday afternoon of lark of sincerity in grounds urged for adjournment, advise you to wireless Citizens’ Committee to apply to commission on arival at Samoa for adjournment and support application with all the grounds which show impossibility of petitioners j proceeding with their case without reasonable time for preparation. Although Government has practically refused to ; provide such time; commission has full j power to adjourn notwithstanding what has happened. Ir hope of reasonable adjournment being granted advise you proceed to Samoa by Sierra and take risk of molestation by Administrator and make best of restricted or<Jer of reference.—Findlay.” NO RETREAT Mr. Nelson added that he had in no way forsaken the course which had brought him to New Zealand, and he regretted that a section of the Press had chosen to regard his recent attitude in an uncharitable light. Even under the present circumstances, the Citiz€;ns’ Committee would have to fight its case on unequal terms, but he had the fullest confidence in the justice of its cause. NOT PROHIBITED POSITION OF MR. E. W. GURR A cablegram received by Mr. Nelson 1 yesterday quoted the Faatonu, the official organ of the United States Government in American Samoa, in contradiction of the Hon. W. Nosworthy’s assertion that Mr. E. W. Gurr, a leading member of the Citizens’ Committee, was a prohibited immigrant in the American section of the grcffip. The cable said that the Governor of Pago Pago had published a correction of the Minister’s statement,

making it clear that Mr. Gurr had never at any time been deported from, or prevented from entering, American Samoa, The message added that Ar'amag&sa, a chief mentioned in Mr. Nosworthy’s “Who’s Who,” was not prohibited from entering Pago Pago. Other statements by the Minister were also erroneous, added the report.