CHINESE IN SAMOA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 97, 26 April 1932, Page 6

CHINESE IN SAMOA.

11l tilo "Pacific Islands Monthly*' February number, the question of miscegenation between Samoans «intl Chinese coolie labourers was again ventilated. The New Zealand Government boasts of having reduced the number of Chinese in Samoa down to 700, including the 100 Chinese \\-lw have been freed of their contract restrictions and are allowed to engage in any occupation or business they wish. These men have been granted the privilege of being allowed to remain in Samoa as free settlers as long as they have no criminal record. So we can assume that the bulk will be a permanent labour supply for the territory. If we deduct from the total these ItiO free settlers we have 540 men approximately under ft three years' contract, who are employed as cooks, housebovs, agricultural labourers, and im various kinds of unskilled work. I his is the kernel of the Chinese labour controversy in Samoa, and how to replace this number with other labour more akin to the Samoans. When one realises that it is only this small body of men that has to be replaced, the Chinese labour problem would sink to insignificance if the New Zealand Government were really sympathetic, really anxious to protect the Samoan race from injury by the poorest type from Southern China. 'Surely it would be possible to recruit 500 odd men with families, from the innumerable islands of the Pacific, many of which arc mere coral atolls where the natives scrape a bare existence, living entirely on coconuts and iisli, where there is not even enough soil to grow taro, bananas or any of the vegetables which arc the staff of life in "islands more fortunately situated. We have been assured on good authority that from the Gilbert Islands alone we could recruit more men than we require for our total labour free, people who would be glad to come to Samoa and enjoy the conditions prevailing here. Then there is over-populated Java. Surely out of that huge population of over 40,000,000 people who are practically the same race as the Samoans we could get the paltry few hundred labourers we require, even if they were allowed to come here as free settlers. It must be obvious to every reasonable person that a serious effort on th-j part of the New Zealand Government would quickly end once and for all this crime against a fine friendly race of people whose only desire is to be left alone. What would New Zealanders say if the New Zealand Government proposed to land a number of Chinese in New Zealand in the same proportion as they are in Samoa to the population? How would New Zealand mothers like to see their daughters associating with Oriental labourers, who were engaged for a short period of three years' and eventually return to China, leaving hundreds of Chinese halfbred children behind? I have in front of me at the present time a list qf twelve girls and young women, some mere children, whose ages range from about eleven years old upwards, who have lived and are possibly still living with Chinese— this from only one village. If conditions like these prevailed in New Zealand, I am quite sure every ladies' society in the country would rise up in organised protest, and I am quite sure that if only the various women's societies in New Zealand would consider these facts pressure would be brought to bear on the Government so that this cruel degradation (and ultimate extinction as a race) of these friendly islanderswould be quickly stopped. It is diflicult to understand how any person who has read either Frederick O'Brien's book "White Shadows in the South Seas" or Newton Rowcs' book "Under the Sailing Gods" is not filled with indignation at the treatment meted out to these unfortunate islanders. Women, as a rule, are the leaders in any great humanitarian movement, but the conditions prevailing in Samoa seem to leave New Zealand women cold. .Apia. NOTA BENE.