CHANGE IN SAMOA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 189, 12 August 1933, Page 9

CHANGE IN SAMOA.

TOWARD HARMONY.

GENERAL HART'S EFFORTS.

NEGOTIATIONS WITH MATT. (By MARC T. GREENE.) APIA, August 4. The "eneral conference with the Administration sought by the Mau for moie than two years and up to now denied them hangs at last upon a single issue. General Hart has received the Mau committee 011 three occasions, thus making a definite and notable move toward reconciliation and the restoration of the long-desired harmony in Western Samoa. He has treated the Samoans with the utmost courtesy and rather more than implied that many, if not all, of their requests will be granted. But on the issue of Mr. 0. F. Nelson the Administration is adamant. It will hold no discussion with him anywhere, at any time or on any subject. Nor will it, so far as that can be avoided, permit his influence to affect the negotiations with the Samoan chiefs. This issue has been thoroughly thrashed out and is' now clearly defined. At the first meeting with the Mau committee General Hart agreed to meet the Mau in a fono whenever they desired, and lie made no conditions as to the number that should attend it or the subjects that be discussed. The only qualification was that Mr. Nelson should not be a participant. The committee withdrew to consider the Administrator's position, which meant only that they went at once from the Government building to Mr. Nelson's offices. At the appointed time they met the Administrator again and declared that they could not agree to the stipulation regarding Mr. kelson. They asked General Hart to reconsider that stipulation and to meet them again. He did so, but only to restate his former position. Faamuina, president of the Mau, asked if the general would meet Mr. Nelson and himself alone. This too, was refused.

Thus it may be declared categorically that the .Administration of _ Western Samoa proposes to have nothing whatever to do with Mr. Kelson. This it ha« put squarely up to the Samoans, and if their position is interpreted as an attempt to drive a wedge between the natives and Mr. Nelson that inteipretation is admitted by the Administration to be generally correct.

"Something Must be Done."

The situation therefore resolves itself into another impasse. Yet there is a general feeling here that significant developments are impending and there are many rumours in the air. As this is written a number of the Mau leaders are in Savaii talking with some of the chiefs there where the Mau is strongest, and Mr. Nelson's personal following most loyal. Moreover, there are said to be si"-ns of restiveness on the part of some of the chiefs. The Administration has now made it clear to them that all they ask will be discussed and everything possible granted if they will leave the leadership of Mr. Nelson and deal direct with the Government, and there is no doubt at all that this attitude is making an impression. Moreover, the traders and planters, practically all of them relatively neutral, declare that "something must be done. They are getting tired of seeing business suffer, the natives grow ever more morose, and things in general go to the dogs, all because only one issue holds tne controversial parties from a conference that might well reconcile matters and to a large extent end the acrimony and bitterness of years.

Nor is it considered here quite accurate to assert that there is no hope that the Samoans ever can be reconciled to a New Zealand Administration. Generally loval to things British and respecters of British institutions, the Samoans are not at heart hostile to Britain. Much injustice in the past, tactless administrative dealings and the selection of a type of European of unsuitable mentality, has, without doubt, somewhat shaken their loyalty, but it is not beyond hope that New Zealand can restore it. Much sympathy from people heretofore "neutral." and even from some strongly on the native side, is greeting _ the obviously sincere efforts of the Administration under General Hart to "get together" with the Man. If they succeed, and harmony is restored iu Samoa,, together with contentment aiul a greater measure of prosperity for the Samoan people, such a consummation would seem likely to be as gratifying to Mr. Nelson as to anyone. The position is now reached when that consummation is not without the bounds of possibility. At least the issue is squarely un to the natives, or to the more than 90 per cent of, tliem constituting the Man.

"Resolving Itself."

The policy of undertaking to convince the people'of New Zealand that the Samoan situation was "resolving itself, that the Mau was dead or dying, and that all would soon be well, has been a mistaken policy; a very,stupid one, in fact. Little could be farther from the truth, and it is a very obtuse person who caunot distinguish between a kind of sullen passive resistance, a brooding suspicion and a morose resentment, all of which may have no tangible outward manifestation, and tranquillity. The former conditions are demoralising and destructive of a people's morale; and it is only too clear that the morale of the Samoans is at the lowest ebb it has yet been. Danger of many kinds attaches to such a condition, and there is a feeling here among all classes' that that condition must be rectified at all costs. The Administration does not believe it can be rectified through Mr. Nelson's leadership. Therefore it refuses to deal with him on behalf of the natives of Samoa, but insists on dealing with their own chiefs. That is the position in a nutshell.

Wrongfully Blamed. | Moreover, there is a good deal that has wrongfully been blamed upon New] Zealand. You find upon a little inquiry that there was a "Mau" in the German days, even as now, arid that the Germans had more than a little difficulty with it. Why, then, you ask, were the Samoans relatively contented with German rule, and why are they ever referring to it as a period of comparative content? "Because they were prosperous then," comes the prompt reply. In other words, the economic distress that is in part responsible for the depressed condition of the natives is blamed to the Administration quite as economic distress everywhere else i» blamed by the unthinking multitude to the powers in control at the time. .No doubt New Zealand has intensified the economic distress here in many w ays, and by needless expenditure, as, ample, the New Zealand police force,!

which has done little but harm in one way or another, and should, at tlie earliest possible moment, be withdrawn, except for a chief, as in Rarotonga and elsewhere.

But the point is that whether New Zealand or anybody else had been in political control of Western Samoa during the past three or four years, the world-wide depression would have had its effect here just the same, and there has been too much associating with New Zealand the effect of that depression upon the islanders. The depression has swept across the South Seas with the destructive effect of one of the devastating hurricanes of the Pacific, hut nowhere else than in Western Samoa has the Administration been blamed for it. Nevertheless, the expenses here are greater than they should be now. Moreover, there have been and still are people enjoying pleasant positions and good incomes who never should have been sent here, who know nothing of the natives of these or any other islands, care less, and stupidly deem it beneath the dignity that they are able to persuade themselves they possess to attempt to learn. Such people in a place like this affront the natives by their stupid "caste" notions, and make the problems of well-intending Administrators like Hart and Turnbull ten times more difficult. The natives, being affronted, are more easily led into devious paths out of which they will presently find it difficult to extricate themselves.

You hear, among the thousands of rumours flying about Apia, that the natives have been promised many things, such as a protectorate, or even complete independence, that there is no w ly in the world they can secure without the consent of the present Mandatory. No way exists within the machinery of the League of Nations for a change of the Mandate, or a withdrawal of it, except at the wish or with the consent of the Mandatory.. If there were, nothing is more certain that such machinery would have been set to work in the matter of the Japanese Mandated Islands. But to the unworldly Samoans this is not clear.