SAMOAN DEPORTEES.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 158, 5 July 1921, Page 9

SAMOAN DEPORTEES.

DENIAL OF ALLEGATIONS

■ The Hon. Sir Heaton Rhodes. ActingMinister of External Affairs, informed a New Zealand "Times" representative on Saturday that he had received first-hand information enabling him to refute completely allegations made in Stead's "Review" to tlie effect that the German deportees from Western Samoa were denied the opportunity of obtaining woollen clothing before proceeding to a colder climate. Mr. H. Gerard, who was secretary to the Samoan Arministration at the time the deportations took place, has informed the Minister that he personally, on .behalf of the Administration, arranged with one of the deportees named Traub, for the appointment of a committee to ascertain from the German nationals what warm clothing they would like to secure from New Zealand before they embarked. The Germans in Samoa were circularised on the subject, and a list was submitted of their clothing requirements, with the result that a cable was sent to a New Zealand firm which dispatched by the firet steamer some hundreds of pounds' worth of warm clothing, which was distributed by the Administration to the deportees, and a debit made against them in connection with the settlement. Subsequently Mr. Traub and other deportees personally waited' upon the Secretary to the Administration to convey their thanks for the special efforts made by the Administration in this connection.