SAMOAN AFFAIRS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 289, 6 December 1928, Page 24

SAMOAN AFFAIRS.

NEW ZEALAND ASSOCIATION.

ENTERTAINS GENERAL, RICHARDSON.

LOTEKUb WHO MADE TROUBLE

tl'roin Our Own Correspondent.)

LONDON, October 24

The New Zealand Association, pursuant to its policy of entertaining distinguished persons whose interests are bound up with that of the Dominion, gave a luncheon to-day ill honour of Major-Cciieral Sir George Richardson. Sir James Parr, the High Commissioner lor Sew Zealand, who was in the chair, said: — We are met to do honour to a distinguished citizen of New Zealand— Major General Sir George Richardson. Our guest has had an almost romantic career. As the General's later years have been concerned with civil administration, one is apt to forget that he is a distinguished soldier. V\ e know that he liegan lift; as a private. Unaided by family influence, without the assistance of much worldly wealth and with few friends in his early days. General Richardson, by his own ability, by his own energy and brilliance, has won a distinguished position in the military world. No ofTicer came back from the war to New Zealand with greater respect, and, indeed, affection, attached to his name, than did General Richardson. But lie wae not allowed to remain idle, for he was G.O.C. Administration in New Zealand in charge of the demobilisation of the N.Z.E.F. —a very difficult and intricate job, requiring sympathy, tact and patience. He was called from this job to be Administrator ol Samoa. There are fourteen mandated territories tinder the League of Nations —Western Samoa is one, and New Zealand holds the mandate. With some experience at Geneva of the mandatory system, I saj' there is scarcely a more difficult post in the mandated world than the governorship of Samoa. We know that his administration was cruelly attacked. We know that lies and slanders were published broadcast throughout the. world about the General. These came from the interested little group of. half a dozen whites and halfcastes, a small coterie who" have made all the trouble in Stfmoa. We also know, and we rejoice to-day, that the League of Nations has cleared his name, has vindicated the Administration of these Islands by the New Zealand Government and its Governor, and has put the slanderers to shame. General Richardson, after a unique career, is going to take his retirement, still a young man (he was born in the name year—almost the same month as myself, and. therefore, in still a boy, in heart at least),. We all hope that he had muny years in front of him, not to enjoy a lazy autumn life, but in useful activity for his country—a country which thinks so well of him.

"In my opinion Wβ great characteristic in Samoa was his intense regard for the beat interests of the native population. In this he adhered strictly to the spirit of the Mandatory Trust •under which New Zealand governs Samoa. He vanquished the dread di»e«Ues of hook worm and yaws, and independent medical authorities say that he made Samoa a model as regards the health of the native population. Also he mapped out a progressive system of edhcation. But for this little nest of unscrupulous agitators, injured, they supposed, in their pockets by his proSamoßß policy,' this splendid social service could even have been intensified and increased."

General Richardson, in reply, said he Bad just returned from a visit to the Somme and Ypres sectors. When lie returned to New Zealand he would tell his countrymen that the things that most impressed him in Europe wore not the wonders of London or Paris, but the cemeteries where lay those heroic men who made him proud to be a member of the British Empire. He would say how profoundly he had been filled with a sense of the duty incumbent Upon all members of that Empire to prevent a recurrence of the terrible trdgedy of war.. / ■ "I am not going to refer to my work in Samoa, but you can rest assured that I have always been; the friend of the underdog. Under the mandate we have a sacred duty to the indigenous inhabitants to uplift and civilise them." The New Zealand Administration had this to its lasting credit, that it found the Samoans a diminishing race, and had made them a healthy, progressive, and increasing race. What that meant was only known to those who knew Samoa, whether that knowldege came from personal experience or from the works of Robert Louis Stevenson.

The Hon. Pember. Beeves proposed that all present should unite in sending through the High Commissioner, a message of sympathy to Sir Charles Skerrett expressing the hope that he would goon recover from his illness. Tj-'u a" 1 * 8 ' associations with General Kicaardsoti was so close that the resolution would be appropriate. The resolution was carried unanimously