DRY SAMOA.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 282, 27 November 1919, Page 10

DRY SAMOA.

THE LIQUOR PROHIBITION. A FORCEFUL PROTEST. ~W ith no uncertain voice," says the Samoa "Times" of November 8, "a public meeting of the European residents of Samoa has promptly recorded its protest against the provisions of Proclamation No. 65, which decrees that henceforth the importation of alcoholic liquors into Samoa is prohibited. The meeting was held in the Market Hall on Friday evening last week, exactly one week after the tiat was promulgated. It was a relatively large gathering, and well representative of the best elements of the community, there being few among the more prominent of the citizens absent. The chairman, Mr R. D. Croudace, said the powers that be had seen lit to issue a proclamation affecting the freedom of them all, without reference to public opinion or, as far as could be ascertained, without any resident of Samoa having been consulted on the question. The result had been a storm of indignation such as had never been known in this pluce. A great outcry followed this drastic action, and the residents took : ,-teps to protest against this flagrant breach of the Constitution of the British Empire. Mr. Croudace then read the j petition -which it wa s proposed to forward to the Government of New Zealand. He s.-.id that if this proclamation was a sample of what they would get under the Mandatory system, they wanted to have r.6thing to do with it. ' Were they going to submit? They must' fight and keep on fighting until they convinced the Government or whoever might be responsible for this atrocious outrage that they were not to be trodden upon in this degraded fashion. They should make a bold bid for liberty. Air. I. Railey then proposed the following resolution: — '"This meeting wishes to emphatically protest against the high-handed action of the authorities, namely: Establishing prohibition on this territory by military proclamation. We claim that" if prohibition is necessary here, we, the residents, are the right ones to decide the question and should have been consulted, whereas to use the powerful machinery of military law (implicitly obeyed during war, but now twelve months after war has ceased intolerable) has raised intense indignation and distrust amongst us, and we urgently insist that such an undemocratic and utterly uncalled for measure be withdrawn immediately." Mr. A. Loibl seconded and the resolution was carried unanimously.