MR. NELSON IN REPLY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 270, 4 February 1928, Page 1

MR. NELSON IN REPLY

“Samoan Situation Serious” ADMINISTRATION AGAIN BLAMED (Special to THE SUN.) WELLINGTON, To-day. “ | DO not wish to infer that the situation in Samoa is I not serious. It most certainly is serious, and the position is v'holly due to causes for which the Administration and the Government are responsible.”

I'PHIS statement is contained in a reply by the Hon. O. F. Nelson to the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. J. G. Coates, regarding the Samoan trouble. The statement has been issued by Mr. Nelson after consultation with his two colleagues, Messrs. A. G. Smyth and E. W. Gurr and on the advice of Sir John Findlay, his legal adviser. “Mr. Coates took over four weeks after the deportation orders were made to think out for publication excuses for the: outrage,” he says, “and it might have i>een coincidence that this was issued on the day that I and my fellow victim, Mr. Smyth, arrived- in New Zealand. “My summary expulsion from the land of my birth without trial and in fact without any charge being preferred against me, has placed upon me a burden of work that I have not yet been able to clear off.” Mr. Nelson reserves his criticism of the Royal Commission’s report till after the report of the proceedings are available, but he declares that before the commission had finished its sittings the Samoan people were openly expressing their contempt for it. Mr. Nelson then goes on: “The Prime Minister says: ’The administration's experimental native copra sellbig policy was largely responsible for the present movement.’ The Prime Minister knows that the Administrator hid not start handling native copra till March, 1927. He knows the trouble 1* Samoa began long before that. “It is amusing to find Mr. Coates saying: ‘I think it is not generally recognised in New Zealand that our administration of Samoa has for many months past been largely ineffective.’ but Mr. Coates is responsible for hitherto suppressing the information? He has been pretending for long enough that the trouble in Samoa is not serious, and now he has the nerve to speak as though the public ought to be aware that the trouble is serious. . education not harmed “Tl}e situation, though serious, is ®ot entirely as represented by Mr. yoates. For example, while Mr. Coates is broadcasting that the natives are beeping their children from Government schools, Mr. Rutherford, Director of Education in Samoa, now visiting J* 6 * Zealand, contradicts him by stat‘the political disturbance in Samoa “»d practically no detrimental effect Pn education.’ “WhUe the Administrator was admitting before the Royal Commission hat his administration was failing to Unction, Sir James Parr was informthe Mandates Commission at that the administration was satisfactorily.” Mr. Nelson denies that the natives * Ve refused to catch the beetles. If did not search for the beetles, he B *id, the traders would be ruined, bef augG the plantations would be ruined. sworn before the Commission the natives were being effec*

tively ordered to clear the plantations of beetles, which were handed to Mau officials.

“In spite of all the inspired eulogies of the medical department,” he continues, “I confidently state that it has never had the confidence of either the natives or of the Europeans. Any European or native, who is ill and can afford it goes to Pago Pago, in American Samoa, for treatment, rather than accept the medical services, which are provided out of the annual tax of £1 an adult male a year. SPLENDID OPPORTUNITY “Sir George Richardson had a splendid opportunity in Samoa. Before he arrived, glowing reports had been spread concerning him. He set out at first to ingratiate himself both with Europeans and natives. His methods were at first successful with the natives. I wish my pen were adequate to describe him at Afamasaga’s house on the occasion of Mrs. Afamasaga’s birthday. By the way, Afmasaga was the first chief to be banished and deprived of title by General Richardson. “At that time he used to be In my office nearly every day, consulting me on matters of policy and seeking my assistance. He shed his ingratiating ways, however, when he began to feel his feet and realised he had a free hand from the New Zealand Government. “Samoan high chiefs who desired time to consider the Administrator’s half-baked schemes were charged with disloyalty, banished without trial and deprived of their chiefly titles. Forty-six chiefs were banished before the Mau was formed and 50 att "Surely it must be plain why unrest has arisen in Samoa! Let me say that prohibition has nothing to do with it. Prohibition is not General Richardson’s baby- It was in force before he arrived. He has openly told the Europeans in Samoa that he does not believe in it. He did not give evidence in favour of prohibition before the Royal Commission. No official gave such evidence. The inspector of police and other leading officials gave evidence against prohibition. The Europeans, while they dislike prohibition, do not blame General Richardson for it. PROHIBITION not cause “Prohibition has nothing to do with the present unrest and Mr. Coates knows that. “But to return to my fellow-victims and myself—wherein have we offended? All we have done has been to present complaints to the Government of New Zealand and to Parliament. And for that sole reason we have been banished from our homes, driven from our businesses and separated from our relations and friends.” ■ —»— '