SAMOAN AFFAIRS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 286, 3 December 1930, Page 8

SAMOAN AFFAIRS.

All who have dispassionately given attention to Samoan affairs will welcome "G.E.L.W.V letter suggesting an inquiry into them. In view of all that has happened to the alleged disadvantage of our administrative reputation, and the outstanding fact that the people of Samoa still (rightly or wrongly) passively resist our authority, it is essential that such a state of affairs.be terminated in as graceful and peaceful, yet in as speedy a manner as may be possible. A continuance of the farced conditions can be neither to our ultimate benefit nor to that of the Samoans. They are unhappy, and their happiness and contentment is the first consideration, before which all other factors must be made secondary propositions. The Samoans strongly object to us and diseent from "our methods. We are accused by them of many things to their discomfort, and of pursuing a system of administration they regard as unjust. It is they who have to wear what they regard as shoos that misfit, and it is not for us to insist that they must continue to be so shod. In these troubles the Samoan is the plaintiff, and we are the defendants. We are not, therefore, entitled to judge of or pronounce on our own doings thus brought into question before the bar of world-wide criticism. The only procedure to adopt is their reference to an independent tribunal appointed by an independent authority, such ae the League of Nations, and not either by us or the Samoan. If we can exonerate ourselves before euch an investigating body, well and good. But to decline "to accede to the request that an outside body be asked to hold an investigation into the conduct of Samoan affairs" (to quote Hon. Mr. Ransom's pronouncement) is an attitude that can neither be justified nor maintained. GEO. GRAHAM, i