SAMOAN DEPORTATIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 393, 29 June 1928, Page 13

SAMOAN DEPORTATIONS

APPEAL TO PRIVY COUNCIL PROBABLE CHANGE OF VENUE After the deportation proceedings in Samoa in December last vear, which resulted in Messrs. O. F. Nelson, E. W. Gurr and A. G. Smyth being ordered to leave the Territory, Mr. Nelson proceeded to Geneva, via London, with a dual objective. One was to secure a decision from tho League of Nations as to whether these deportations were opposed to. the powers conferred on New Zealand, by the mandate under which the Territory is administered. The second object was to support the petition of the Man, signed by over 90 per cent, of the adult maje population. praying that lx greater measure of self-government be granted to Samoa, and that Britain be asked to administer the Mandate direct, instead of through the New Zealand Government. REBUFF AT GENEVA It appears from the cabled reports of the meetings of the Mandates Commission that the personal petition of Mr. Nelson on the deportation issue was not considered, although it was brought under the personal notice of the delegates from the various nations composing the commission, and no doubt had its psychological effect when several days were spent in examining the New Zealand delegates on the official reports of the Administration, and then in considering the petition from the Mau. That finished Mr. Nelson’s mission to Geneva, and probably nothing further will be heard of the deliberations of the. Mandates Commission until its report is tabled at the meeting of the League Council set down for the end of August next. MR. NELSON'S DOUBLE-BAR-RELLED GUN It is now apparent that in his dual quest Mr. Nelson carries with him a double-barrelled weapon, with the idea that if the first barrel missed at Geneva, tho second may register a hit at Westminster, where the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council sits to adjudicate on appeals from the farthest-flung outposts of the Empire. Mr. Nelson was advised before setting out that it might be held at Geneva that as British subjects the deportees from Samoa had their final court of appeal with the Privy Council, and that tho whole of the processes of British, law had not yet been exhausted by them. On this aspect of the deportation issue Mr. Nelson was advised by Sir John Findlay, K.C., here, and afterwards by Dr. Evatt, K.C., in Sydney. Dr. Evatt conducted tho appeals before tho Commonwealth High Court when the deportation orders against Thomas Walsh and Jacob Johansen were cancelled. In tho opinion of Dr. Evatt the Samoan orders were wide open to attack by process of law, both in challenging the validity of the legislation in the New Zealand Parliament, and also the manner in which the deportation proceedings were conducted and orders issued in Samoa. This second line of attack has now been launched in London by Mr. Nelson. A private letter from Sydney states that formal notic© of "the proceedings has been served on Sir Georg© Richardson in London by Mr. Nelson’s solicitors there, and a move has been made to originate a case there. It is not usual for a case to originate before th© Privy Council, whose functions are practically confined to hearing appeals; but as the Samoa Amendment Act of last session, authorising these deportations, appears to make no provision for any appeal in the New Zealand courts, and leave to appeal to the Privy Council against the orders of banishment issued by General Richardson against certain high chiefs last year was refused by the Appeal Court here, it is quite possible that the legal proceedings in London will take the form of a direct appeal by Mr. Nelson to the Privy Council against th© decision and action of the ex-Administrator -in ordering the deportations. The Hon. Richard Cripps, K.C., has been briefed to appear for Mr. Nelson, and news of some proceedings may reach New Zealand at any time now. The Hon. Mr. Cripps, K.C., is a son of Lord Parmoor, who was also a famous K.C. in his day, and one of the few peers in the Labour Cabinet of Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, where he was Lord President of the Council. In a recent letter from London Mr. Nelson was very optimistic, and thought “if he missed his bird at Geneva he would bag him with the second barrel in London.”