THE MANDATES.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17609, 11 November 1922, Page 18

THE MANDATES.

DISCUSSION AT GENEVA. SIB F. BELL'S STATEMENT. FBOII OTTR OWN CORRESPOMJEN T ) ! 1 LONDON, September 26. From Geneva I have this morning received the verbatim record of the discussion on the Mandates. Sir Francis Bell made a carefully considered statement, the full test of which reads:— ] "I wish to preface what I have to say—and I have carefully put-it into writing—by stating that nothing that I may say has any reflection upon the present Mandates Commission or its report. We associate ourselves with the -statement in the report of the Sb.th Committee that the pre : ent Mandates Commission has done its work as it understood it with great care and with great impartiality. The subject of consideration of reports undor the Mandate provisions of the Covenant comes beiore the League for the first time this year. That part of the functions of the League ha*> never been exercised before, and nothing now done should create a precedent unless this Assembly hereafter decides that the precedent is to he followed. A course convenient to the circumstances o s to-day may be adopted by reason of its present convenience, but in other and different circumstances it must n°* be possible to assert that that course defines a method which the Assembly itself had decided in the year 1922 to accept as correct and conclusive for its procedure. We all recognise that in its relation to mandatory Powers the League holds an authority entirely different from that which it exercises in its discussion of the relations of the members generally. Every member of tnu League ha-i obligations, created by the League, hut a member which is also amandatory Power has, added to these general obligations, special duties imposed by the mandate. "The Dominion of which I am one of the representatives has the dual obligation and duty, first as member and secondly as mandatory. Its position '.n the discussion in this Assembly of the general obligations of members of theLeague is the position of a small part of the Brit-sh Empire content in most matters to be guided by the delegates who represent the 'Government of Great Britain. But its position as a mandatory is «one which brings it into direct actual and separate relation with the League. Though what I now say has a general bearing upon the position of all'mandatory Powers holding mandates of the 'C class, it must b*" understood that I only desire to define the position of New Zealand, and that I speak for that Dominion as a. member of its Government, though using my right of audience as a delegate nominated by it. "His Majesty, m right of his Dominion of New Zealand, has accepted a mandate for Western Samoa, and shares another for Nauru. What his Majesty does in right of his Dominion he does on the advice of his Ministers of that Dominion, not on the advice of his Ministers of Great Britain, and the statement which I present is one which the Government of New Zealand very respectfully but very urgently presents to this Assembly." Sir Francis then quoted the paragraphs of Article 22 of the Covenant, showing that New Zealand was clearly a mandatory of the League and not of the Council. The Dominion's duty to the Council, he said, was defined in the following paragraph: "In every case of mandate the mandatory shall render to the Council an annual report in reference to the territory committed to its charge." "The New Zealand Parliament," continued Sir Francis, "has legislated for Western Samoa. The Administrator of \vestern Samoa rules and administers under and in pursuance of those laws. New Zealand is under an honourable obligation to legislate and administer in accordance terms and intent of the Covenant of the League. She Is bound to report annually to the Council- : She is willing and anxious to | receive suggestions and advice from either the Permanent Mandates Commission, or the Council of the League, but she cannot admit that the Permanent Commission has power to. interpret for her the meaning of the Covenant, or to dictate to her what procedure she should adopt in her endeavours to perform her duties to the League. "I offer two objections to the present procedure. First: The report of the Mandates Commission should, I submit, ba a report to the Council and not to the public. And certainly opinions of the Mandates Commission on any subject should be expressed to the Council and not to the public. We have nothing to fear from any investigation and court the fullest enquiry; but we do not court or desire opinions upon our laws or our administration from any body of persons other than the Council or the Assembly. The Council must necessarily require from its Mandates Commission the freest statement of the results of the investigations of the Commission, and must' seek the unrestrained advice of the Commission on every point. How is it possible that such a report and advice, if published, can fail to give offence to the mandatory legislature and Government? The class of report and advice which the ' Covenant requires from the Commission to the Council is not one framed in diplomatic language avoiding offence, but a summary or facts and advice to enable the Council to form an opinion. "Secondly, whether the annual report to be considered by this Assembly be from the Permanent Mandates Commission (which I contend should

not be the case) or from the Council (as I contend it should be), a second question has arisen and must in another year be directly decided by the Assembly. The mandatory Powers are not represented on either the Council or the Permanent Mandates Commission, but they are represented by their delegates in this Assembly. On behalf of New Zealand, I beg to present a claim that when this Assembly refers such a report to one of its Committees the delegates of the mandatory have a right to require that committee to enquire into and report to the Assemprr its opinion unon any objections which the mandatory offers to the language or findings of' the report. "The Sixth Committee of this year has given full and fair hearing to the objections of mandatory Powers, and has set forth in its report the effect of those objections, but has desired to abstain from expressing directly its own views of the validity of those obobicctions. That course has been convenient in the cose of the present report, but the right of a mandatory Power whose legislation or admimstiation is under consideration to appeal from adverse comment and invite a decision from the delegates in this AssemTk should be definitely affirmed and established. A. mere right of audience is wholly insufficient. A\e aie required to govern and must govern to the best of our ability. \\ e are required to legislate and must legislate according to a careful exercise of our discretion. It is possible that our government and our laws may become the subject of adverse comment or criticism in some report of a later year. Then and upon That report, will arise the question whether we agree with the comment or criticism. If we do not we cannot in performance of our obligation alter our administration or request our Parliament to repeal or amend its legislation until we have a decision from our fellow members assembled by the League that in _ thei; opinion the comment or criticism is justified." Indian Delegate's Criticism. In the course of his speech on the following day, Sir P. S. Sivaswamy Aiyer (delegate for India) mode some reference *to indentured labour it is interesting to find," he said "that the members of the Mandates Commission draw attention to the features attendant upon the system of indentured labour, which has been introduced into some of these territories. They call attention to the social dangers .which are inseparable from a system of indentured labour. Explanations have been given bv the representative of New Zealand", but I am not certain that they are quite reassuring. One reason why the women in China are unwilling to come forward is said to. be that they demand the same conditions or. work and the same pay as the men. That, I think, is a demand which is reasonable enough, and which, I think, we cannot complain of. "It is also said that the three years indenture under which the labourers are imported allows too short a period for the Chinese labourer to learn the language or to associate with the natives of the country., lam afraid that these circumstances are not sufficient guarantee against the, dangers which are only too likely to follow the exclusive importation of male labour. We in India have had some expereince of the dangers attendant upon the immigration of an exclusively male labouring population,- and it has always been the endeavour of the Indian Government in the past to secure a due proportion between the sexes among the immigrants. I have no doubt that the Government of New Zealand, which has displayed so much solicitude for the welfare of the people committed to its charge, will realise the injportahce of this aspect of the question, and will see that a due proportion of the sexes is ensured among the labourers whom 'it recruits from China.

<r l should also like to pay a tribute," said the Indian delegate later, "to the solicitude for the well-being of the natives which has been displayed by those various mandatory Powers in their administration of the territorials." When Sir Francis Bell made his remarks yesterday, I was wondering what there was in the report of the Mandates Commission which had offended his susceptibilities and called for the note of warning which he thought it necessary to sound. I have examined the report of the Mandates Commission, but I have not been able to discover anything in that report which could have offended the susceptibilities of anyone. _ Far from criticising the they extol the virtues and the merits of the New Zealand administration. ' I should have thought that the Permanent Mandates Commission would have been entitled to expect the thanks of the New Zealand administration; but it iB a hard world, and it is difficult to please everyone. "As regards the dangers which Sir Francis Bell has spoken of, I am unable to find any departure from the constitutional position which he so correct- ■ ly laid down. I see no desire or any intention to infringe upon the position ■ or upon the principle which lie laid down. The) Permanent Mandates Commission hasmade its report only to the Council which, has submitted' to us the reports of the Permanent Mandates Commission, as annexes to its report. We ore entitled, as members of the Assembly, not merely to the opinions of the Council, Jbut we are also entitled to be placed in possession of tlie material upon which the Council has "formed its opinions. I have been unable to discover any impropriety or any desire on the part of the Mandates Commission or of the office of the SJcretary-ttenGral. to depart from the strict canons of propriety." _ After dealing with the South African mandates, Sir Sivaswamy concluded his scholarly speech) on a very idealistio note. "Even now," he said ; "we hear of the centre of gravity in international affairs being gradually shifted to the Far Bast and to the Pacific coast. But why? Let only the nations of the earth give up their earth hunger and their rivalry and cupidity for markets, and their desire to appropriate vast uninhabited continental spaces, we shall then be free from the chances of strife and conflict. It is only to the extent that we are able to conquer these cravings for land and for markets, and to the extent that* we are able to conquer the vulgar though deep-seated rareju-' dice of colour, that we shall be able to realise the idteals of humanity and justice, and then, and then only, will this Assembly become a real federation of the world and a lasting bond of peace." Sir James Allen. Sir Jamea Allen followed a little later. "The Indian delegate," he said, "made some remarks with regard to my country, New Zealand, as the mandatory Power for Western Samoa. I wish to join with him in expressing on my own behalf and on behalf of New Zealand our anxiety for the care, not only of the native population, but of that contract labour which is brought in from outside. The Indian delegate has referred to indentured labour. I do not like the word 'indentured' myself, and it does j not quite express the position which prevails in Samoa. The labour that j comes to Samoa comes under contract for three years. I realise the dim ulties of bringing in labour from outside, and so does my country. If 1 could' trans-poi-t the Assembly to a meeting of Parl liament in New Zealand when the quesj tion of mandates was under discussion, ! I am sure you would all be convinced that there were members in the New Zealand Parliament who were more ready to criticise the Government for any laxity of administration with re- | giird to the native population than the 1 , members of the Assembly or the Per- ; manent Mandates Commission. We ■ have experienced that in our Parliai ment in New Zealand. j "Now I want to explain very briefly J wherein exists the necessity for con- ' tract labour from outside and the need of it. First of all, with regard to the need of it there are certain islands of the Pacific, of which Samoa is on«^

which are rich and fertile. They were cutivated and highly cultivatedSamoa was at any rate—before we took possession in 1914. And the question naturally arose whether it was necessary to keep these islands cultivated, and, if so, how the cultivation was to be carried out. We came to the conclusion that the world gencrallv needs all the cultivated areas to be keDt in cultivation to supply the needs of the world, and we felt it essential to keep up the cultivation, so far as it was in our power. Unfortunately, during the war we were not able to do so because we had to repatriate nearly all the labourers, and we were not able to secure others. "On the cessation of the war arrangements were made with the Chinese authorities to secure labour from China, and thero comes the point raised by the' delegate from India. These Chinese labourers in the past had come to Samoa as single men—at least, men without their wives, if they had wivesA Parliamentary party went down from New Zealand to Samoa in order to investigate, not only the question of compulsory labour, but also the moral issue which might result from men being brought in without their wives n new country, and as the result of that visit New Zealand determined to bring the Chinese along with their wives, if it were possible to do so. But when we came to put that into practice what was the result? It was reported to us that the women who came with the Chinese could not be guaranteed to be their wives. I do not think that the Mandates Commission or any member of this Assembly would desire to bring a mixture of men and women to Samoa unless we had some assurance that their relationship was that of husband and wife. Consequently, though we made the attempt to secure wives, we were unable to do so "Now with regard to the danger. It is true in Samoa, as it is true in every country, that a mixture of the races may take place. The result, so tai as we know it, has not been a bad result. We do. not encourage it; we wish to avoid it, and to avoid it we have taken every precaution it was possible to take. The agreement is for three years. The Chinese are kept .by themselves, as far as it is possible to do so, and they are repatriated at the end of three years, according to our agreement. They find it difficult in three years to learn enough of the Samoan language and . Samoa customs to become associated, in any close relationship, at any rate, with tEe Samoan women. From evidence given by missionaries and others it seems that even during the time before we entered into occupation the danger of the contact was rot very great, and I venture to say that the danger now is exceedingly small. Now, why is it necessary for us to bring labour from outside? I must ask you to consider for a moment what the native race is which is living in Samoa and in some of the other islands of the Pacific. They are a proud raoe of men and women, owning the lands of the country communally; their needs and necessities are very, very small; the necessaries of life are easily secured, and when they do need any money nowadays it is only necessary to secure a few cocoaniits and turn them into copra. They have few necessities which require money to secure them. As I said they are the owners of the soil, and they are not therefore yet brought to the position in which they are prepared to accept pay as ordinary labourers. Cultivation, therefore, had to be abandoned altogether or the labour to be brought in from outside. Now I hope with that explanation, it will be made clear to the members of the Assembly that my country, New Zealand, is just as anxious as the Indian delegate, just as anxious as any other man orj woman in the community, to see that the condition as between the natiyo population of women and the Chinese who are brought into Samoa, is satisfactory. : "I wish to say just one word about the publicity question. I only want to i refer to one piece of procedure, which I believe has been approved by the [ Council, by which the Permanent Man- ' dates Commission have to hold a pub- j lie meeting before their report is sub-' mitted to the Council. Might I ask the Council to reconsider that piece of , procedure. It is not satisfactory. In my own judgment it would be far better that the report of the; Mandates Commission should be sent direct to the Council without a publicity meeting, and with the comments attached of the mandatory country which they desire to attach, together with the comments of the Permanent Mandates Commission. I do not know that therw is anything further that T need allude to except to give the assurance both with regard to the labour that is brought in ' and with , regard to the native population, that everything is being done which can be done to secure the happiness of each. "There was one remark made'by the member for Haiti, which the Raporteur ha 3 referred to, to which I should also like to make a reference, and that is with regard to the native population, or the' population of the mandatory country, communicating direct with the Permanent Mandates Commission. 1 think the report has adopted the soundest plan of procedure, that any petition or report from the population should come through the mandatory Power, and I wish to warn the Assembly, as I think I did last year, of the very grave danger of permitting petitions to come from the native population or others, direct to the Permanent Mandates Commission without their having been seen by the Mandatory Power. Our experience in Samoa is to the following effect: That the natives, if left alone, would probably honestly petition what they felt. But the natives are not left alone.' (Applause.) The natives are influenced by agitators who, for purposes of their own, would very likely induce the native population to send a petition to the' Permanent Mandates Commission which would not really represent the feelings of the natives if they had not been so influenced. Therefore it is necessary that any petition should come not direct to the Mandates Commission, but through the Mandatory Powers." (Applaiuse.)