CAPTURE OF SAMOA.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 204, 28 August 1926, Page 13

CAPTURE OF SAMOA.

TWELFTH ANNIVERSARY. A BLOODLESS VICTORY. To-day is the twelfth anniversary of the capture of Samoa from the Germans, and the event is being observed this evening at a reunion of Samoan . exservice men.

The conquest of German Samoa by the British tleet, the hauling down of the German eagle by the Samoans themselves, and the occupation of Apia, the capital, by the New Zealand advance guard was probably the most peaceful act of hostility in the Great War. When day higoke on August 29, 1914, the anxious British residents of Apia saw wisps of Btvpke low down on the horizon. The Crisps grew into four columns, extending; from the far north into the Bight of Fagaloa. Was it the German Pacific Fleet? Soon the silhouette of the ships Indicated that they were British and then a glimpse of a white ensign was the most cheering sight of all.

In the lead was H.M.*. Psyche. A boat was lowered, two British naval officers were rowed to the Bismark wharf where they landed. One carried a broomstick with a scrap of white linen attached to it to indicate their peaceful mission—merely to. inform the German Governor that th« Germrn reign had come to an end. Later in the day New Zealand troops landed from transports, the British flag was oicially hoisted, and Samoa peacefully pasted under a new and better regime. The advance party of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force to proceed to Samoa was concentrated at Welling! n during August of 1911. It consisted if 1100 men, infantry and signallers, thi Auckland section of the force being in charge of Major W. Kay. The force was farewelled by the Governor-General on August 14 and the following day left in the troopship* Monowai And Moeraki. A strict silence was kept in regard to the destination of the troops, although it was (generally known in view of the troopships that had been selected and that surf boats and mosquito netting were in demand, that the mission would be \o dispossess the enemy of an island possession. Simultaneously with the departure of the Monowai and Moeraki, which proceeded up the west coast of the North Island, s naval escort consisting of H.M.S. Psyche, Pegasus and Pyramus left Auckland and junctioned with the troopships at a rendezvous north of New Zealand. At this time a powerful German naval force, which included the armoured cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisnau, the two crack shooting ships of the German navy, were suspected to be somewhere in the South Pacific and thus until the troopships and their naval escortsthree poorly-, armed cruisers, of little fighting power—reached Noumea,* the was hazardous in the extreme. On arrival at Noumea the escort was augmented by three-units of the Australian Fleet, consisting of the battlecruiser Australia, the cruisers Sydney and Melbourne, and the French armoured cruised Montcalm, naval protection that was fully adequate in the event of meeting any German warships. The journey to Samoa was completed without incident. . -' • After the occupation of Samoa the New Zealanders took over garrision duties and the administrative work, and Governor Schulte, the German commandan*, was brought to Auckland and interned at Motuihi Island. Now that Samoa is mandated territory it is fitting that its destinies should be controlled by New, Zealand and it « ~ n^.r eߣ n ? to recall that in the early t£>£K by with the British Government, the country first passed under German rule. It is likeSSJ**% t hat , at that time 'he BrK ?* nt i of Samoa Juried the British flag and over it they placed a stone inscribed with the one word Resurgam." '