SAMOA POLICE TO DISBAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 927, 21 March 1930, Page 10

SAMOA POLICE TO DISBAND

B\ the disbandment of the Samoa military police a promising experiment in militarism has been terminated, and the advocates of coercion in Samoa given sincere cause for grief. The brief history of this Gilbertian little force has cost New Zealand several thousand pounds that the country could very ill afford, and it has added another magnificent blunder to the imposing catalogue of errors into which successive Governments have been betrayed by their Samoa policy. In the ease of the police force, the Government acted first, and reflected some time afterward. It prepared for a recourse to arms, and then permitted a belated recourse to conciliation. Had somebody of the Hon. J. G. Cobhe’s balanced and temperate judgment been sent to Samoa long ago, there would have been no occasion for this pathetic waste of money, and some rather discreditable sacrifice of life might have been avoided. Not until the estimates are presented will the total cost of mobilising this “deathless army” (in the truest possible sense) be disclosed. It is doubtful if the figures will be revealed this year, partly for tlie reason that in the ordinary course of things the accounts for the current financial period may be closed too early for their inclusion, and partly because in any case the Government might find it expedient to wait a year or two until popular interest lias subsided. What with the periodical dispatch of warships to Samoa, the expense of having an airplane survey the islands from aloft, the cost of mobilising and disbanding military companies, and the little matter of Ministerial investigations. and commissions—there have been two sent to Samoa within tlie past three years—the mandate which the New Zealand Government accepted with so much benevolent pride a few years ago has .proved a doubtful blessing, particularly since the objects of our supervision do not seem to appreciate it. Naturally the demobilisation of the police force is regarded with dismay by the champions of compulsion and aggression, yet it is rather interesting to find one of them, whose treatment of recent Samoan news has not been conspicuous for impartiality, following its lament for the disbanded police force with a demand that “misleading propaganda” in New Zealand be made to cease. There are two brands of misleading propaganda, and the perplexed New Zealand public is still wondering which is the worse. In the meantime there is some satisfaction to he gained in contemplating the promising state of affairs in the dependency. The spirit of justice and give-and-take is quite capable of settling this trouble without resort to displays of force.