BACK FROM SAMOA

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 330, 16 April 1928, Page 1

BACK FROM SAMOA

General Richardson's Return

ADMINISTRATOR EXPLAINS DISCONTENT

“iJVEEY. New Zealand Government official who gow to u Samoa and endeavours fearlessly and conscientiously to discharge his trust and do his part to carry out the Mandate in the interest of the native race moot sooner or later become the object of censure and misrepresentation on the part of a small non-native section of the community in Apia. 7 ’

Though Major-General Sir George Richardson, the rotir ing Administrator of Samoa, who arrived in Auckland at noon to-day by the Tofua from the Islands, declared that lc would reserve his principal statement for the Government at Wellington, he did not hesitate to speak freely in regarii to affairs in the Mandated Territory. Several of the men to whom Sir George referred. lie said, were apt to live in the past. They yearned for the return “of the good old days when Apia was known as tin Hell of the Pacific, and when the natives were, comparatively speaking, a diseased and uncared for people.”

Q.ENERAL RICHARDSON' has completed five years’ office as Ad- j ministrator. He will sail next week ' to place the case for the New Zealand ] Government before the League of Nations Assembly at Geneva. Referring to the appointment of his successor, Colonel S. S. Allen, Sir George said: “He is a jolly good fellow, and the right man for the job. I wish him luck.” Personally, Sir George said, he had “had enough.” “I have filled my contract of five years, and am only sorry that I will not have more time in my own country before going abroad,” added the General. Captain Boyle, A.D.C., in full regimentals, was at the steamer to welcome General Richardson, who arrived in mufti. “I am no lioney-pot!” he replied, when, on the Tofua, he was asked by The Sun to comment on Samoan affairs. He preferred to make a statement on reaching Wellington. Nevertheless, the retiring Administrator discussed the position at Apia with his usual directness. The present cause of the trouble, he explained, had been fully dealt with by the Royal Commission which sat in Samoa, and. subsequently, presented its report to the New Zealand Government. “Very well, then. The question might well now be asked: ‘Why did not the trouble end there?’ The chief conspirators, or leaders of the so-called Mau movement, led the natives to believe that they were going to take the matter further afield. They led the natives to believe that they were great men, that they had great power, and that they would reverse the decision of the commission.” It was impossible for Samoans to reason in the same manner as Europeans. By some these men were taken at their word. A small committee of chiefs was to-day receiving instruction and advice from several of these leaders, and carrying on the movement they call the Mau. “But in reality,” commented General Richardson, "it has developed into a revolutionary society to subvert the influence of the Government. This influence is criminal. I cannot refer to it in any other manner.” The position to-day was that a committee of chiefs—incidentally every

chant that the boycott was specially ! arranged by one of the deportees. I Such a thing could never have been j suggested by the native mind. The boycott was limited to the main street | of Apia. “The shop-window of Samoa -(the main street of Apia) was specially dressed every time the Tofua arrived. The purpose of this, of course, was to impress ! tourists.” I The market for copra was £26 2s : 6d. The average price paid to the native was £lO 6s lid a ton. For I the same period Samoans in American I Samoa received £IS. This year they ! will actually receive an additional | £l. “Naturally this difference in i price is a great bone of contention on I the part of Samoans. Ever since t | arrived in the country I was urged - to help them to obtain the same consideration as in American Samoa.” As to the prohibition of liquor, i General Richardson said: “It is our | bounden duty to keep liquor away from the natives. That is all I have to say on that point.” Replying to a question as to Press censorship in Samoa he denied that this existed. Serious harm has been done by an edition of the “Samoa Guardian” edited by Mr. E. W. Gary and printed in the Samoan tongue This was prohibited. “As a matter of fact it did more harm than anything else I know ia Samoa. It was unprecedented in the Islands, and I am certain would never be tolerated in any other country,” he added. The people of New Zealand, said the general, should not judge native : conditions in Samoa by their experience in dealing with Maoris. The ratio was approximately one European to i 100 Samoans. There was no parallel In the conditions of the two countries. One Samoan in every three men over 21 years of age was a chief, which gave him prestige and privileges an<| exempted him from labour. As against this Tonga only had 35 recognised chiefs, and every male person there had a piece of land to cultivate fo4 ' himself; that was why the TonganfJ bad a better output of copra. Samoans had never been a united people. Formerly, they frequently quarrelled over aspirants for chieftains ship. They were adepts at political

intrigue The chiefs were jealous at ‘ each other and ambitious for powei “Yet let me assure you there is no desire for a change of flag. The present trouble is inspired by conspirators on the Apia Beach who buttonhole tourists and fill them with what I call political dope.” The Hon. O. F. Nelson, said General Richardson, was not a hereditary chief. The title was given him by another chief at his (Mr. Nelson’s) own xsj quest. General Richardson was met on the! wharf by a number of returned soldiers, including Mr. S. C. ReitL ! president of the Auckland Returned Soldiers’ Association; E. H. Sharjfc * secretary of the R.S.A.; Major Simeop, of the Samoan Ex-Servicemen’s Asak ciation: Major Wilkie. Takapuna; and Colonel J. Hardie Neil. D. 5.0., preS* ' dent of the Officers' Club. Sir George was greeted with clmert after he had shaken hands with - i assembled to meet him.

Samoan in three is a chief —was receiving communications from certain men who had been “sent away from their country for their country’s good.” Money had been contributed both by the native and the leaders to pay the expenses of an organisation which use intimidation to force others to join it. Threats of banishment and to take away titles —the only form of punishment the Samoans understood — I had been made. Loyal natives had written complaining to General Richardson to this effect. “I am convinced that the trouble would die down were it not for this propaganda. What is more, I am satisfied, and have positive proof, that a great majority of the Mau has no sort , of grievance against the Administrator at all!” Questioned as to the necessity for j dispatching the naval expedition to I Samoa, Sir George Richardson replied, i “It was essential, and its chief purpose, the breaking of the boycott, lias i been achieved. There is no boycott \in Apia to-day. The natives can only respect a strong Government, and it

! was necessary to give them some \ tangible evidence of it.” Prior to his departure the Adminisi trator had been informed by a mer-