WESTERN SAMOA.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 November 1921, Page 5

WESTERN SAMOA.

CONTROL OF NEW ZEALAND. ‘ OBJECTION NOT UPHELD. fjw Telegraph. —Pre’* Association Wellington, .Last Night. In the House of Representatives this afternoon the Prime made the following statement: i ‘The Governor-General of New Zealand, i acting upon the recommendation of his . Ministers duly referred tc the Secretary of i State for the Colonies, for submission to ] His Majesty the King, a petition presented ■ by certain of the people of Western Samoa, , praying that the maodete may be trans- , ferred from New Zealand to Great Britain. 1 His Majesty has commanded that the peu- ' tioners be assured that he has a great love i for the Samoans, and desires earnestly , that they may live in peace and happiness under his protection, and that it should be explained to them that, Germany having, by article 119 of the Treaty of Versailles, renounced all her rights and title over her oversea possessions, the document now re gulating the position of Samoa is a mandate issued by rhe League of Nations on December 17, 1920, under which the Government of New Zealand has, subject to the mandate, the full powers of administration and legislation over Samoa, and that neither His Majesty’s Government nor the New Zealand Government have any power to alter this mandate. It is, therefore, His Majesty’s wish that the should in every way co-operate with and assist the Administration appointed by the New Zealand Government to govern the islands.”