The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1930 VIOLENCE IN SAMOA

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 890, 6 February 1930, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1930 VIOLENCE IN SAMOA

AX impartial judgment on the recent violent clash and grievous fatalities in Western Samoa has been secured at last. It is contained in the comprehensive verdict of the territory’s Chief Judge, who held a coroner’s inquest on the victims of the serious conflict between the Mau and the special police force of Samoa on December 28. All the vital circumstances and consequences of the disturbance have been investigated and reflected upon with that dispassionate thoroughness which is the very pith of traditional British justice. Unfortunately, the findings of Chief Judge Luxford, formerly a New Zealand magistrate, well-known and respected in this city, will not disperse completely the main cause of present native bitterness in the territory. It has been made clear by the coroner, who had all the faets before him, to say nothing about liis own knowledge of the temper of the Samoan community at the time of violence, that there was an outstanding error of judgment on the part of the authorities or their authoritative servants in their attempt to impress a disciplinary moral lesson on excited and apparently riotous members of the disaffected Samoan organisation known as the Mau. The rifle fire which caused the deaths of High Chief Tamasese, a prince of Samoa, and two natives, Tuia and Migao, was not necessary. According to the evidence disclosed at the inquest, such fatal firing by threb policemen from a balcony of the police station was in no sense or circumstance essential. Indeed, impartial witnesses of those fatalities made it clear to the extent of indisputable certainty that the late High Chief Tamasese, at the moment of his untimely fate, was inciting the Mau mob to peace and good behaviour, not to menacing conduct and violence. It must be conceded at once, however, and without even the suspicion of qualification that the policemen who were guilty of unnecessary shooting believed with perfect honesty and loyalty that in firing their rifles at prominent figures in the hysterical mob they were doing their duty and nothing more than their duty. If the embittered natives can be brought to see the consequences, of a rash act in that light and from that just point of view, they should be able to forget and forgive the cause of their bitterness. In every other respect the coroner’s verdict discloses plain facts which should he impressed upon the disturbed minds of the Mau. The leaders of that organisation had been warned fairly of the intention of the authorities to effect certain arrests from the ranks of a gala procession of natives. That warning, it is declared, was ignored with a defiant spirit. Such orders as were given for carrying out the will of the administration did not include anything in the way of offensive measures against the procession. There was no intention to practise violence, though it is possible that the well-intentioned authorities had not given sufficient thought to the risk of provoking a disorderly outbreak. Mr. Luxford also makes it clear that it was the serious active resistance to the police when the arrest of a fugitive native was attempted that not only enabled the wanted man to escape but endangered the lives of the arresting party. That menacing resistance brought into operation the precautionary measures which, in practice, led to deplorable results. Thus all that happened in the quelling of ugly and fatal disorder (Constable Abraham had been stoned to death when he was physically incapable of defending himself) was justified and necessary, except the rifle fire by three policemen. No doubt, there was a great deal of hysteria on both sides, with the effect of it much worse on the recalcitrant natives.

It can only be hoped now that the New Zealand Government. will do everything possible to heal raw wounds without delay and in a manner revealing conciliatory sympathy as well as essential firmness. It is difficult to understand the reason for sending to Samoa a Minister who knows nothing- about the territory or the temperament of its discontented natives. Mr. Cobbe could be much more advantageously employed in this country. There appears to be no need of any closer contact with Colonel Allen than that afforded by radio communication. The Samoans will look askance at the presence of the Minister of Defence in the territory.

A MOVE TO COMBAT CANCER

AT a meeting in the Town Hall this evening Auckland will make its first public assault on that most malignant of humanity’s diseases—cancer. It is true that the thrust will be purely of a preliminary nature, but all public campaigns must be built on a broad base of a community’s sympathy, and the move to enlist the active interest and support of every citizen is an essential one. As we have stressed repeatedly, the undertaking of the New Zealand divisions of the British Empire Cancer Campaign Society is far from being premature. On the contrary, history points plainly to the fact that New Zealand has delayed over long. Cancer today is a scourge of the white race taking- a cruelly-heavy toll of health and life. What is still worse, the disease is gaining ground'in this country with a steady rapidity that must give grave concern to the healthiest of men and families. It cannot be gainsaid that cancer in its various forms has worsted the present system of medical treatment. This is not a slur on the medical profession of New Zealand or any other country, for doctors are doing all that their science and training have taught them to do, and they admit frankly that, under existing conditions and systems, they can do no more. The result of the battle they have waged can be gauged with grim clarity from the records of 1875, when in every 10,000 New Zealenders, there were two deaths from cancer and sixteen from tuberculosis, a disease then regarded as the most dangerous enemy to the health of the race. Today those figures tend to become reversed. In 1928 the tuberculosis death-rate in every 10,000 persons was five, and that of cancer, ten. Clearly the time has arrived for reorganisation on a scale that will remove the eaneer problem from purely specialised quarters and extend it to the dimensions of a public question of the highest importance. The meeting this evening will be the first step in this direction, and the appeal for funds should awaken the public to the urgent need for a programme of observation and research work within the Dominion. One of the serious handicaps of the past has been the lack of essential first-hand information and data, together with the impossibility of obtaining it without organised effort. Medical men have been obliged to rely upon evidence and advice from overseas, -where conditions and circumstances may differ hopelessly from those at home. Besides enabling the establishment of adequate cancer research work in New Zealand the funds of the society’s four divisions in New Zealand will be made available for the purchase of expensive methods of treatment —-including, of course, that of full radium treatment —and their thorough testing before trial. Finally, the campaign now on the eve of being launched in Auckland will teach and emphasise the commonsense principle that science can help the people only if the people help themselves. Cancer has become an individual menace and its overthrow an individual*responsibilitv.