CONDENSED REPORT

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 303, 14 March 1928, Page 1

CONDENSED REPORT

MR. HOLLAND PROTESTS (Special to TUB SUN) WESTPORT. To-day. ‘•Notwithstanding that the Press Association sent out a full text of the attack on myself from the Samoan Adm ini&tration, they refuse to transmit other than a condensation of my reply/* said Mr. H. E. Holland, Leader of the Opposition, to THE SUN’S correspondent. “I naturally resent this unfair and partisan attitude on the part of the association, and should be g'ad if you would give these remarks publicity.” Samoan chiefs and other natives ant. the deportations of Europeans hafl incensed the natives and created the situation which left us with the people in revolt. A return to methods based on conciliation and common principles o'l British justice, he said, would speedily restore Samoa to normal conditions, and if he were in Mr. Coates’s place he would proceed to Samoa by the first available boat and would meet the Samoan people on this basis. One thing was certain, we coulci never hope by methods of force to subdue the natives of Samoa. Our main task now was by a process of common sense to undo the harm which had grown out of our attempt at an administrative despotism. As to that portion of the radio message which referred to his pamphlet. Mr. Holland said that the last page of the pamphlet contained sn appeal to the Samoans to refrain from methods of violence and to rely on constitutional methods for the redress of their grievances. He was confident that the whole matter could be settled without any recourse to force whatever.