SAMOA REPORT

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 197, 9 November 1927, Page 11

SAMOA REPORT

VALUE TO OTHER POWERS PROFIT FROM LESSON By Cable.—Press Association. — Copyright. LONDON, Tuesday. “The Times” publishes a leading article on Samoa. This says there is no question as to the wisdom or inevitability of the decision of the Mandates Commission to await the report of the Royal Commission before delivering judgment on the present troubles. The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Mr. Coates, took the right course in appointing the commission, the members of which were universally approved. The only substantial criticism was that the commission was not appointed earlier. The paper says:—lt is important that all mandatory Powers should remember how valuable the Mandates Commission is becoming as a repository for colonial experience and a living link between Governments which need to profit by each other’s lesson. The value of a document like the forthcoming report on Samoa will not be limited to the mandate with which it is concerned. The Mandates Commission does not enjoy wide powers. Its action is dependent for usefulness upon the goodwill of the mandatories. COPIES OF LAWS

To a recent notification that the Mandates Commission would be glad to have bound copies of the mandatorv laws of Samoa brought up to'date, the Administration replied that it had none to spare. It seems clearly to be worth while for the Administration to have printed and even bound a few extra sheets in order to enable the commission more completely to fulfil its duties. —A. and N.Z.-Sun.