SAMOA.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16520, 12 May 1919, Page 8

SAMOA.

NEW ZEALAND'S MANDATE.

(PRESS ASSOCIATION' TELF.GRAM.)

WELLINGTON. May 10. The official correspondent with the New Zealand Peace Delegation cables as follows under date London, May 9th:—

The mandate for New Zealand's control of Samoa is as follows:

Germany renounces all rights and title over the island constituting German Samoa, and the Associated Powers entrust the government of the islands to his Britannic Majesty, to be exercised bv New Zealand. The Government must have full legislative, administrative, and judicial power over the islands as an integral part of the territory of New Zealand, and may apply the New Zealand laws thereto, subject to such local modifications as the circumstances may require. His Britannic Majesty, for the New Zealand Government, accepts the mandate upon the footing that the trust is imposed and accepted for the wellbeing and development of the peoples of the islands, and to that end undertakes that the slave trade and forced labour shall be prohibited, and traffic in arms and ammunition be controlled in accordance with any general convention which may he entered into by tho High Co-operating Parties in this behalf. The sale of spirituous liquors to natives shall be prohibited, and military training other than for the purposes of internal police and the internal defeifce of the islands shall be prohibited. Furthermore, no military or naval bases shall be established, and no fortifications shall be erected in the islands, either by the Government of New Zealand or by any Power or person. The value of the property in the islands belonging to the German Government shall be assessed and shall be recorded in the Inter-Allied Repatriation Fund and regarded as allocated to the share of the Government of New Zealand's expenses of administration of the islnds. If the revenues obtained from local sources are insufficient, the expenses will be defrayed by the Government of New Zealand. If at any time, the native inhabitants of the island express a desire to be united with New Zealand, and "ihe Council of the League of Nations .considers this desire to be conscious and well-founded, and calculated to promote the natives' interests, the Aiiicd and Associated Powers agree that effect shall be given to it by the Council of the League, and the islands shall therefrom be incorporated in New Zealand for all purposes, and her administration under this Convention shall be regarded as at an end, provided that all undertakings set out in Article 3. including prohibition against the establishment of military and navel bases or fortifications, shall continue to operate in the islands. After such incorporation the inhabitants of the islands shall be entitled to British diplomatic protection when in foreign countries.

The Government of New Zealand shall make an annual report containing full information in regard to the islands, and the measures taken to fulfil tho trust, and the extent of the well-being of the natives, copies of the report to be presented to the League of Nations.