LABOUR AND SAMOANS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 861, 3 January 1930, Page 1

LABOUR AND SAMOANS

REPLY TO VIEWS OF CORRESPONDENT “POLICY WELL KNOWN” Replying to a correspondent's comment, published on December 31 in THE SUN, on a speech in Samoa by High Chief Faumuina on a promise to assist Samoa, alleged to have been made by Mr. H. E. Holland, Leader of the Labour Party, “A Samoan” declares that, were the Labour Party in power, a great change would be effected in New Zealand's policy in Samoa. "A Samoan's” letter is as follows: The letter from a correspondent in Apia which appeared in the New Year’s Eve issue of The Sun was very ill-timed. His comments on a speech made by High Chief Faumuina to friends in Auckland on the day he left New Zealand, and another speech given at a reception to him on his arrival in Samoa last November, displayed bias on the part of the writer. The policy of the New Zealand Labour Party, as enunciated by its leader, Mr. H. E. Holland, leaves no room for doubt that a great change would be effected in New Zealand's policy in Samoa if the Labour Party secured power. If Faumuina met Mr. Holland while he was here, there is every reason to believe that Mr. Holland would only have repeated to the High Chief the Labour Party’s ideas in respect : to the administration of Samoa, and any reference to Mr. Holland could only have been in respect to this well-known policy, but the manner in which this anonymous correspondent describes it is only well in keeping with the way in which onesided “correspondents” from Apia misconstrued all that is said in criticism of Government policy. “STATEMENT BORNE OUT” In the light of recent events, Faumuina’s statement that the Samoans would “follow out the precepts of the Prince of Peace,' enduring such further persecutions and hardships as may be imposed on them by a discredited Administration,” has been more than borne out. Commenting on Faumuina’s remarks, your “correspondent” stated: “This may be admirable oratory, but it savours somewhat of Christian massacres and persecutions in Armenia and conveys the entirely erroneous impression that there are still landing-parties of marines and ferocious military police terrorising the peaceful Samoans. Everybody in Sampa knows that, whatever conditions may have existed several years ago, nothing resembling military oppression now obtains here. On the contrary, it is the Mau which carries weapons, obstructs public highways, and adopts an aggressive attitude. Presumably it is this which constitutes the Samoan idea of ‘following out the precepts of the Prince of Peace.” It now remains for this letter writer to apologise to High Chief Faumuina and the Samoans for his insulting references to them at a very critical time. He should admit that “Everybody in Samoa” (New Zealand and everywhere else) “knows that it is not the Mau, but the Administration, which carries (death-dealing) weapons, obstructs the public highways and adopts an aggressive attitude.” It is also true to say that “whatever conditions may have existed several years ago,” the situation in Samoa is worse today than ever .it was. CABINET’S PRONOUNCEMENT The Cabinet pronouncement of last Tuesday refers to the tragedy as further “Mau aggression,” and that “law and order would be enforced by whatever means necessary.” If this is the only remedy the New Zealand Government can offer, then it is indeed "bankrupt in the arts of civil government,” as one Australian statesman put it some time ago. This will be the third New Year that has dawned on a once-happy Samoa, now a most dejected and unhappy people; but to gaze on the joyous crowds which thronged the Auckland streets on New Year’s Eve, one cannot help but deplore the indifference of the New Zealand people to the terrible tragedy being enacted at their very door in the performance of their duty to what their Government is pleased to call “a sacred trust to mankind.” When will the New Zealand public awaken to the grave responsibility resting on them by the actions of their own Government on a cultured people? How long will the rest of the civilised world look on and allow this tragedy to continue?