The Sun THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1928. RECONCILIATION IN SAMOA

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 298, 8 March 1928, Page 10

The Sun THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1928. RECONCILIATION IN SAMOA

WHAT is described as a new move toward a definite end to native disaffection in Western Samoa ought to have been the first move instead of the last one in a sorry tale of movements. This is the decision to exercise the virtue of conciliation on generous terms in perfectly good temper and honest goodwill.

If such a movement had been tried more persistently a year ago and maintained with the same patienee that has marked and made British government of native races a tradition which commands respect and admiration throughout the world, it is reasonable to assume that there would have been rmich less trouble in the mandated territory. Of course, the official political reply to comment concerning the necessity for a conciliatory administrative policy will be that conciliation was practised to the exhaustion of patience, but the answer to such a defence has been provided in drastic form by the Administration itself. There are warships in the offing, and marines parade the thoroughfares of Apia. Samoan chiefs and citizens are biting their nails in exile, and four hundred demonstratively disaffected natives have been clapped in gaol, their incarceration obviously being more disciplinary than punitive.

Thus the kind of conciliation hitherto practised in Western Samoa has yielded a hitter, prickly fruit. It is to be hoped sincerely that the new and broader kind of reconciliation will be productive of a happier harvest. Everybody concerned with the government and welfare of the island territory should realise that New Zealand stands alone in its responsibility for the ultimate success of its mandatory trust. It has been made clear in the House of Commons by the Prime Minister of Great Britain that the policy and operations of the New Zealand Government are not subject to the approval of the British Cabinet. The despatch of the New Zealand Navy to Apia was solely a matter for the New Zealand Government and the King. This explanation incidentally demonstrates the serious responsibilities and dangers the Dominions have incurred with their new status of independent nationhood within the Empire. Politicians have need of caution in their administrative ways. Though a streak of seriousness with the possibility of tragedy has been thrown into the mandatory operations, the position in many ways is touched with almost as many absurdities as a comic opera. Gilbert alone could compress all the vexatious circumstances into an appropriate jingle:— For many hours—for many days— For many weeks performed each brother, For each was active in his ways, And neither would give in to ’tother. The terms on which a quick reconciliation is proffered to the agitated and disgruntled natives are such as to be deserving of complete success. They are promised more without further trouble than all that the Mau could or would ever get with constant trouble, and if the generous conciliatory policy of the Administration be rejected, then the cause of unrest must be attributed to an obdurate and mischievous stupidity.