NAZI ACTIVITIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 June 1940, Page 7

NAZI ACTIVITIES

GERMANS IN SAMOA RECENT INTERNMENTS. POSITION IN MANDATED TERRITORY. The opinion that New Zealanders should know of German activities in their mandated territory of Samoa was expressed last Monday by an Australian who has come to Auckland after living for about 10 years in Apia (states the "N.Z. Herald”). He arrived a few months ago with the intention of enlisting in the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force, after having been passed as fit in Samoa, but was rejected because of his eyesight. The Australian said that for many years an active group among the 40odd German nationals living in Samoa had made no secret of their allegiance to the Nazi Party. For some years there had been a German club in Apia, the Concordia, that was open to any of the white colony. ■ However, a few years ago there had been formed another German club of unmistakable political flavour, a frankly Nazi organisation which controlled all the activities of the German nationals belonging to it. CLUB PRESIDENT INTERNED. The president of this club and many of its members were interned in New Zealand several months ago. Other members who had been just as active, however, were still in Apia, although they apparently had to report regularly to the police. Among them was the former chief engineer to the Samoan Public Works Department, and formerly arbiter or judge in the local Nazi Party’s affairs, who had been relieved of his job when war started, but in February was' still conducting building inspections for the administration. The club, he said, had been closed down after the outbreak of war. At that time all the German nationals had been locally interned. Some had later been sent to New Zealand, and the others, numbering about 30. were released under a form of parole. Among these was a prominent planter, not a member of the party club, one of whose sons had been interned, while the other was in the Public Service in New Zealand. Another who had not been interned was a German who, with the president of the club, had travelled to the Olympic Games in Germany at the expense of the Nazi Party. However, after his return he broke away from the local party as a result of Nazi persecutions of the Catholic Church. A third German who still had his freedom had been too ill for travellinrg to New Zealand and medical advice had also been against sending him to a colder climate. ACTIVITIES OF PARTY.

However, there were other former members of the club who, although not interned, had been just as active in the organisation as some of those who had been sent to New Zealand. Among these latter was a man who had been brought out from Germany only a few years ago as a school teacher, although since he could not then speak a word of English and as educational facilities were already ample, the British nationals could .not understand the necessity for his coming. He had lived at the Nazi Party’s club and was reputed to be a special agent.

At the time war broke out the Nazi Party was supposed to have been disbanded, although meetings were held just as frequently as before, and the Nazi flag was just as constantly flying on the party’s headquarters. The order for disbandment was given earlier last year by the then German Consul in New Zealand, Herr E. C. Ramm, and followed an incident on the landing stage at the wharf. INCIDENT ON WHARF. Herr Ramm, said the Australian, was visiting the German nationals in Samoa by the same boat as the British High Commissioner for the Western Pacific. Sir Harry Luke, was travelling in on an official visit to the territory. When the vessel arrived at the wharf Sir Harry was confronted by the sight of a large Nazi flag and a gathering of the Nazi Party officials, headed by the president, who is now interned in New Zealand, and included a group of Samoan chiefs representing the 300 or so natives the party had managed to interest in its activities. Herr Ramm's order for disbanding the party arrived in Samoa after his return to Wellington, but the party carried on with no apparent change in its routine. The Australian said numerous incidents cotrld be told of how the Nazi Party, at least one of whom affected the customary high boots and uniform, had offended the British colony. One ! occurred after Mr Chamberlain’s return from Munich in 1938. The occasion was seized upon by the party to demonstrate its joy at what it considered a German victory and an advance in its plans. AFTER MUNICH IN 1938. His German shopkeeper neighbour had immediately run a Nazi flag up on his flagstaff. Not to be outdone the Australian determined to run up an even larger Union Jack on his taller flagpole. One of the largest stores at Apia could not sell him one; another said it could give him any one of seven Nazi flags, but had no Union Jacks for sale. However, it found one it had bought for its own use at a previous occasion and made him t: loan of it. When he flew it the German shopkeeper, who was also his landlord, immediately protested about its superior size and height. The party had also been the moans of disseminating among the German nationals and natives propaganda of the usual type. At one time, when Germany was criticising the British for the disturbances in Palestine, he had obtained some of this propaganda. As far as he could remember it. the propaganda talked of the British murdering of innocent Arabs, said it was just another example of British methods and called upon Germans to bide their time.

It might be thought, he said, that such a small group of Germans could do little harm, but for some years their activities had not been calculated to help the Administration. In addition they could form the nucleus for activities of a much more destructive character should they ever receive the chance.