RECENT SAMOA CLASH

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 900, 18 February 1930, Page 7

RECENT SAMOA CLASH

COMMENT BY AMERICAN PAPER PAT ON BACK FOR U.S. An American comment on the recent happenings in Samoa is printed below. It is from the weekly newspaper, “Time,” published in Chicago and circulating all over the United States: •‘Harsh and unkind things have been said about the U.S. rulers of Haiti, Nicaragua, the Phillippines. Samoan Islanders appreciate Captain Stephen Victor Graham, U.S. Governor of Eastern (American) Samoa. Most appreciative of all are the inhabitants of Western (British) Samoa, mandate of New Zealand, eight of whom were killed by New Zealand police a fortnight ago. Last week the British cruiser Dunedin ploughed through the South Pacific from Auckland, under orders to cow Samoans again. In Wellington. New Zealand's Prime Minister, the Right Hon. Sir Joseph George Ward looked owl-solemn above his waxed moustache and announced that ‘A firmer policy in administration in Samoa will be adopted.' “Poverty, ’ disease, insurrection followed New Zealanders to ‘Western Samoa. The eight islands composing the group were seized from Germany by a New Zealand expeditionary force at the beginning of the war. The Treaty of Versailles sanctified the seizure. “Samoan hatred of New Zealand commenced in 191 S when a ship, some of whose crew had pneumonic plague, was given clearance papers from New Zealand to Samoa. Western Samoa then had a total population of 40,000. Nine thousand caught the plague and died. “In 1919 New Zealand officials, sent as administrators to Samoa, raised their own salaries, emptied the Treasury, set up a virtual monopoly in copra. For paying the natives a higher price for copra than the New Zealand Syndicate, one O. F. Nelson, millionaire South Sea trader, operator of 80 trading stations, was hustled aboard a steamer, deported from Samoa. “Samoan nationalists have organised a Mau, a native League of Samoa, to further home rule. In the past eight years, every Samoan chief who has been at all outspoken in Mau meetings lias been exiled for from two to five years. “Last May another New Zealand plague ship was allowed to land at Apia, Western Samoa. Epidemic still rages among the susceptible natives. Over 1,000 have died. “A crisis occurred a fortnight ago. One Alfred G. Smyth, patriotic Samoan merchant, returned from a two-year exile incurred by asking embarrassing questions in 1928. Welcoming him at the dockside was a delegation of the Mau, and a watchful detachment of New Zealand constabulary. Leading cheers for the return of A 1 Smyth was the only survivor of Samoa’s royal family, the High Chief Tamasese. In the excitement of the moment someone hit a constable by the name of Abraham on the head, with fatal results. There was a burst of gunfire. A moment later High Chief Tamasese and seven other Samoans lay dying in the dusty road. In revenge for the death of Constable Abraham came the peremptory arrest of 20 Samoan chiefs, the ordering of the cruiser Dunedin to Apia, and Prime Minister Ward’s threat of a still ‘firmer’ policy. “Evidence that Western Samoans have turned envious eyes on their eastern brothers under the administration of U.S. Captain Graham in Pago Pago was published by a potent spokesman for the Mau, the New Zealand ‘Samoa Guardian.’ "‘One cannot help but admire the dignity and big mindedness displayed by the Americans in the manner in which they assumed the control of Eastern Samoa. . . . No threats, no bad names Everything goes on serenely. ... So it should. “ ‘The Mau of American Samoa is jubilant over the turn of affairs. Headquarters for the Mau have been built. At the opening ceremony the Governor (Captain Graham) attended and presented the Mau with a flag.’ “Embarrassed by the situation in M estern Samoa was Britain’s Labour Government last week. Three courses seemed open for the solution of this latest Empire problem: (1) Western Samoa could remain a New Zealand (S) Western Samoa might be joined with Eastern under U.S. ™ ,e ‘ George V. might create \\ estern Samoa a crown colony (as thoxisands of Samoans have already petitioned and begged him to do) with her governors appointed by and responsible to the British Parliament.”