THE CRISIS IN SAMOA

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 941, 7 April 1930, Page 10

THE CRISIS IN SAMOA

DENUNCIATIONS BY TWO MINISTERS OF CROWN By O. F. XELSON (Published by Arrangement) tin this series of articles, the Hon. O. T*. Xelson will write on the situation in Samoa from rhe Samoans’ point of view, and will trace the causes of the unrest -■* the Territory as seen through Samoan *1 THROUGHOUT the whole series of eight full column articles the i ecial correspondent of the morning srspaper wanders from the Mau to no ' beach" and back again in the ile attempt to locate between them the source and origin of what he terms the Samoan •’Conspiracy." The condemnatory references to Mr. H. E. Holland, M.P., and the Labour Party in the sj’mpathies they have expressed to the Samoan people in their long fight against oppression and New Zealand militarism are significant in view of the coming by-election in one of Auckland’s electorates. A SIGNIFICANT SILENCE

It is also noteworthy that where the view of Labour differs from the Government’s policy in Samoa, the charge of political capital being made of a critical situation, involving national prestige, is laid but very little is said of definite denunciations which were made in Parliament by Sir Maui Pomare and Sir Apirana Ngata, as Ministers of the Crown, against the Samoan policy of their own Governments. Nor does the Tory Press

ever make mention of the Verschaf-felt-Parker-Berendsen (three Government experts) Report which has already caused the Permanent Mandates Commission to ask very pertinent questions regarding the reliability of the annual reports which have been sent that body by the New Zealand Government as the Mandatory and on which the New Zealand High Commissioner in London, Sir James Parr, has waxed so eloquent in the past, leaving a legacy for his successor, Mr. T. M. Wilford, who he will not find an enviable one. But these statements and reports have been made and are known to the Samoans and the League of Nations and cannot be eliminated from their minds. They contain actual proved facts against the reckless propaganda which the Government and its agents have been putting forward for so long. THE "COLOUR COMPLEX”

Much mud has been flung at tho non-official whites and half-castes whom the correspondent is pleased to call the “beach.” It is not likely that he inciudes in this reference the Administrator and his officials, even though some of them live right on the beach.” After considering this "beach complex” he deals with the social factor and the “colour-line” friction and says that "numbers of half-caste men and women who have been educated abroad and are quick to resent signs of aloofness by Europeans of the administration who may not have had their own advantages in the matter of education but may assert in many small ways a sense of superiority, which also is quite natural.” There is nothing very natural in the latter part of this statement even were it true. There is no reason why the half-castes should resent the aloofness of any of the white officials should they condescend to notice it. The loss is borne by the newcomer who very soon becomes aware of it. The “sense of superiority” which is claimed to be displayed by the whites over the half-castes with "better advantages of education than themselves” can only offer the latter some amusement as they put it down to an "inferiority complex” in the mentality of the former. If there is a colour line in Samoa it is not necessarily the whites who draw it. It has been found necessary for some of the Samoan native and half-caste people at times to draw the line somewhere in respect to some of the whites who go to Samoa. THE LESSONS OF HISTORY

Samoa is small enough for the inhabitants, white and native, to appreciate the fact, but that does not deprive them of the experience gained through the many changes of control; the long period of intrigue ljy the Powers, and then misgovernment by New Zealand. The inference that the effect of climate and climatic conditions on the minds of the "beach” keeps them ever disgruntled is absurd and will only be taken by the settlers as another sign of the "inferiority complex” already alluded to. Some of the older native chiefs jiml European settlers yet remember the signing of several treaties between the Samoan Government as an independent nation, and the great Powers, when New Zealand was just being granted colonial status. The persistent attempt therefore to cover New Zealand’s bungling methods, and the massacre of proud and dignified Samoans on the plea that they are a “backward” race, easily misled by foreign agitators, would appear to be too farcical to consider if it were not so tragical. To say that the changes introducecd by General Sir George Richardson were obnoxious to the Samoan chiefs as “too democratic” and tended to' interfere with the power of the chiefs over the commoners, is too ridiculous to be considered seriously. With all the clouds of dust and the smoke-screens put up to save the Government’s face, mention of the well-founded and oft-expressed complaints of the Samoans under the Mau organisation is very carefully avoided.

DEGRADATION OF THE CHIEFS No satisfactory reason has yet been offered why High Chief Tamasese and more than 50 other loading Samoans were banished and their chiefly titles removed, between 1924 and 1926, when the present Mau came into being to protest against these undemocratic proceedings. Was the idea to divest the chiefs of their powers only to hand them, in a more brutal form, to a dictator from overseas. who could not possibly learn the real psychology of the Samoans ! during his stay in the territory. Why were the Samoans withheld representation in the Legislative Council when prevision was made for this in 1922? Why are they not allowed to elect their own representatives now, and why should there be only two native representatives for 40,000 people when the whites are represented by two elected members for about 200 elec- j tors, and the Administrator holds a j majority of paid official members, ! nominated by himself? Is it not a fact that the Samoan natives contri- j > ute about SO per cent, of the total ixation and have no representation? hese and many other important ques- : on.- which will be asked as this series roeeeds. have yet to be answered • the satisfaction of tho long suffer- ! ug Samoans. 4To be Continued.)