LABOUR AND SAMOA

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 903, 21 February 1930, Page 6

LABOUR AND SAMOA

PARLIAMENT SHOULD BE CALLED

PRESENT POLICY REPUDIATED

Press Association WELLINGTON, Thursday. The critical nature of the situation in Samoa, arising out of the conditions which have been referred to and others which are cf almost equal concern, render it imperative that Parliament should be called together forthwith. So concludes the reference to Samoa In the Labour Party's statement of policy, issued today. The Labour Party repudiates and ■wholly dissociates itself from the present Government’s continuation of the Reform Government’s coercive policy in relation to Western Samoa, and particularly deplores the shooting during Christmas week of men innocent of any criminal act or intention (says the statement). The party takes the strongest exception to naval and military invasion of the territory. The Labour Party urges that a policy of conciliation be substituted for that of coercion, and that the various repressive enactments and proclamations (all of which are based on the German proclamation of 1901) be repealed. The existing deportation orders should be cancelled and the method of banishment, deprivation of titles, deportations and other punishments without trial, should be superseded by' a judiciary system under which every resident of Western Samoa, whether native or foreigner, charged with an offence, would be assured of as fair and impartial a trial as would be accorded any accused person in New Zealand. Furthermore, the Samoans should be given an adequate voice in the government of their own country. The Labour Party finally urges an overhaul of the Samoa Civil Service with the replacement of unsuitable officials by men with a knowledge of the psychology, historical conditions and tribal customs of the Samoan race.

MESSAGES FROM SAMOA

ONLY ONE STOPPED BY CENSOR Press Association WELLINGTON, Thursday. The Prime Minister, Sir Joseph "Ward, made available for publication today the following communication, received yesterday from the Administrator of Western Samoa, Mr. S. S. Allen:— “In perusing the newspapers received from New Zealand by the mail today, I note that nearly all of them emphasise the absence of news from Samoa, and blame the censorship regulations. The impression that I am preventing news being sent to the newspapers is quite erroneous. Since the riot on December 28 last I have refused transmission of one radio message only, and every other message has been transmitted without any portion being excised, or any interference or delay whatever, whether its contents were true or not. “Any absence of news other than official matter is, therefore, the fault of the newspapers themselves, or their correspondents.”