"ABLE PEASANTS."

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18548, 25 November 1925, Page 10

"ABLE PEASANTS."

. _—* NEW ZEALANDERS IN SAMOA. GERMAN JOURNALIST'S TRIBUTE. (MOK OUB OWW CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, October 23. The Berlin correspondent of the "Morning Post" says that a special correspondent of the "Vossische Zeitung*' is visiting Samoa, where he has been studying the effects of the war on the inhabitants of this former German possession. The correspondent deplores the fact that the colonies where the Germans treated the natives kindly, and cultivated the land well, should have been handed over to the New Zealanders. who are "able peasants," it is true, but without any colonisation wishes or any colonisation instincts.'' The correspondent has no hesitation, however, in declaring publicly • that in their administration of Samoa the New Zealanders have shown themselves to be gentlemen. During the war, he writes, no harshness of any kind was shown to the interned Germans, while on the conclusion of peace, those Germans who had Samoan wives were put in possession oi all their property, and are 7)o\v quietlv pursuing their callings as business men and farmers. T l -- German correspondent endeavoured to learn from the natives whether they wished to return to German rule. Most of the men with whom he talked, replying in the correct English of the missionary school, told him that most Germans and New Zealanders are "white men,'' and both want Samoan copra. The correspondent adds that the Ramoans sing "God Save the King" with the same feeling n5 they once sang the German National AnfiKcm, and he concludes by saying that the Samosn people are amiable, nekccable. and amusing, but loyal they ire certainly, sot.