POLICE AND MAU.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19814, 30 December 1929, Page 8

POLICE AND MAU.

DISTURBANCE AT APIA. THREE MEN KILLED. MANY NATIVES WOUNDED. (Bv Radio —Special to Trfss A*«oci»tion.) (Received December 29th, 11 p.m.) APIA, December £S. Prior to Mr A. G. Smyth and Mr Hall Skelton coming ashore, the Mau, in body, was parading on the main beach road with a Samoan band leading. Among them were men wanted on warrants. The Mau was notified by the police yesterday not to allow these to come to Apia.

In attempting to arrest these men & policeman was struck on the head with a baton and fell. Sticks and stones were used by the Mau and the police had to use their revolver!, and a machine-gun was fired over their heads.

Two Samoana were killed and thirty wounded, while one constable was killed and several were injured.

DETAILS OF THE RIOT.

ATTACK ON POLICE PARTY

(PRESS ASSOCIATIOK T»LEGRAM.)

WELLINGTON, December 29

Details of the disturbances in Samoa are contained in a statement issued to-night by the Prime Minister. Advice was received from the Administrator of Western Samoa that a riot occurred in Apia on Saturday morning. Constable William Abraham and two Mau men were killed, and two police and about thirty of the Mau were injured. "A large number of the Mau came into town to welcome Messrs Smyth and Hall Skelton, and paraded with men 'wanted' by the police, who tried to arrest some of the men 'wanted.' " continued the Administrator. "The arresting party was armed with batons only, and was attacked immediately by some 200 Mau men with sticks and stones. A supporting party of police, armed with revolvers, got all the police clear except Constable Abraham, who was struck with an axe and beaten to death. The Man attacked the police station, but were driven off bv a Lewis gun fired over their heads." The Administrator advises that no special development is expected. The Prime Minister said: "I have called Cabinet together in order to give the matter immediate attention, and I have also asked the Administrator to keep me informed of any changes and also whether he required anv assistance."

The legal force expired on December 22nd of one of the three deportation ordert> made in 1027 banishing from Western Samoa the gentlemen who, it was maintained were largely responsible for discontent amongst the natives in the mandated territory. The three deportees were Messrs O. F. Nelson and E. W. Gurr. who were ordered to leave Western Samoa for five years, and Mr A. G. Smyth, whose term of banishment was two years. Mr Smyth's period of absence expired laat Sunday He has spent the greater part of his term of exile in Suva, and he has wasted no J;ime in taking up his residence again in the mandated territory, for according to the New Zealand edition of the "Samoa Guardian" he was expected to land in Apia from Pago Pago on Saturday. Hia return will probably be an occasion for much celebration his supporters. The other deportees have j/et three years of their period of banishment to run. They are both in New Zealand.

The expiry of Mr Smyth's deportation order recalls one of the keenest political controversies in the history of New Zealand, arousing as it did international as well as local interest. The deportation orders were the culminating point of nrotracted enquiry and discussion as to the causes of native disaffection with the Dominion'* administration in the mandated territory. A long statement in justification of the deportation orders wn* issued by the then Prime Minister (Mr J. G. Coates) a month after the order* had been made. Declarng that the Government had determined to take a stronger course in governing Western Samoa, he referred to the deplorable effect of the Man activities on the natives, particularly in the matter ot public health, and indicted Messrs Nelson, Gurr, and Smyth as the source and origin of the trouble, expressing confidence that, left to themselves, the Samoans would gradually of their own accord renlise the position and co-operate with the Adminstration as in the past. "It cnnnot be made too clear," said Mr Coates, "that this step is not in any way a punishment for a crime or an offence. It is not in the strict sense of the term a judicial act—it is an executive act, taken not as a penalty but as a. preventive measure to facilitate the good government of the territory."