The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1899. THE SAMOAN PROBLEM.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 87, 14 April 1899, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1899. THE SAMOAN PROBLEM.

For the causo that lackß assistance, For the -wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

Only now does the state of affairs in Samoa appear to be attracting- beyond the boundaries of Australasia the consideration it demands. The unfortunateeng-agement at Vailele may at least be credited with one good result. It is certain to compel speedy action on the part of the three Powers who hold joint control over the group. Looking at the trouble from this comparatively short distance, we are apt to have our. view of the situation, as a whole, obspured by recent events in connection with it, and thus to. give to it a warlike complexion which it ought not to wear. New Zealand's commendable readiness to send, down volunteers "to the scene of the disturbance indicates very correctly how we viewed the position. The idea which actuated the American commander to inaugurate the course that has been pursued since the middle of March was apparently the same. JN Tow, if one only considers the matter calmly, he must see that the importation of the warlike element when it was,done was a great mistake, the brunt of which has fallen chiefly on the poor natives. For .that error the representatives of the three Powers are all, we think, to blame: the representative of Germany in the first place, and after him those of Great Britain and America. The initial blame for the whole blunder, however, rests further back still.

The Powers themselves are responsible for the muddle in Samoa. There never was a greater mistake than the attempt to administer the group on the present lines. With the best intentions the parties to the Berlin Treaty invested their respective representatives with rather extensive powers, believing that the hitter, being resident among the natives, would be able to manage things better than their Governments could possibly do. They were permitted almost the same freedom of action as a British Agent has in administering some altogether barbarous African community. Such a privilege is all very well when held by one man, but in the case of Samoa it was held by the representatives of three distinct nations, which was quite another thing. As should have been anticipated the comparat.ve freedom . these representatives enjoyed, and the immunity from outside interference or even criticism had most undesirable results. The place became more than ever a hotbed of intrigues. The representatives influenced by racial prejudices and the existing rival factions, were bound to. come to loggerheads, and the. consciousness of the divided authority to beget discord among the natives. The object of the Powers was to maintain peace in the place. They could scarcely have devised a surer way of promoting trouble than the plan that was adopted. Only if perfect unity between the representatives could have been assured would there have been any hope of the arrangement proving successful. And who that Icnows^ anything of the way things are managed among the rival traders of these islands could inspire any such hope. Even where the white population is of one race these little communities are the scene of interminable quarrels. How much worse must it be when racial antipathies combine with personal interests to foment disagreement ? •

The poor natives themselves are really the most Innocent of all the

parties concerned. They would snever have thought of taking up arms had it not been at the instigation of their German They would never have gone on thei warpath had they not been provoked to do so by the shells from the warshipV They are being attacked and their villages destroyed for no other reason, when all is said, than that the representatives of the Powers who came to promote peace have not been able to agree among themselves. Probably this view of the situation is not very popular .at-this moment, but we feel convinced it is the true one. Admiral Pearson is quite right in saying that the whole trouble has arisen through want of unity on the part of the Powers ; and surely there is every force in the argument that all acts of hostility should cease for the present. That pending an investigation of the position and rearrangement of the administration of Samoa, the ships should go on pounding.at the native villages seems to be what would please a good many people inflamed with the fighting spirit. But to .us such action would seem a piece of cold-blooded brutality and inhumanity. No amount of fighting with the natives can help to solve the difficulties of the position, for which the Powers.themselves are responsible ; and the only attitude that can now be taken up by the Europeans in Samoa is to act strictly on the defensive.