Samoa Urged To Forgive And Forget N.Z. Actions

Press, Volume C, Issue 29712, 4 January 1962, Page 10

Samoa Urged To Forgive And Forget N.Z. Actions

(Special Correspondent APIA, January 2. The joint Samoan Head of State, Tamasese Meole, made a dramatic appeal yesterday for Samoans to “forgive and forget the misunderstandings under New Zealand’s administration,” which had a special meaning for some of the country’s leading families. Tamascse’s wife is a daughter of Mr Olaf Nelson, described as the founder of the Samoan national movement, who was imprisoned and exiled to New Zealand for his activities in the Mau civil disobedience movement.

Another of Mr Nelson’s daughters is the wife of Mr G. F. D. Betham. Finance Minister in the Samoan Government, and the third is married to Mr E. Annandale, a prominent Apia businessman. Mr Nelson’s nephew, Mr F. C. F. Nelson, is Works Minister in the present Government. Brother Killed Another leader of the Mau movement, which flourished from 1926 to 1936, was Tamasese Meole’s brother. High Chief Tamasese Lealofl, who was killed by police in a tragic shooting outside the Government offices in Apia in December, 1929. Tamasese Lealofl was leading a banned procession of welcome to Mr A. G. Smyth, a prominent European member of the Mau movement, who had just returned from two years’ exile in New Zealand Police fired on the procession, killing Tamasese Lealofl and 10 others. Tamasese Meole, watched silently as his brother's shooting was re-enacted in a pageant of Samoan history at today’s independence celebrations in Apia. Leader of Mau Mr Olaf Nelson, who died in 1944, had a Swedish father and Samoan mother. He be-

came head of Samoa's biggest commercial firm, O. F. Nelson and Company. Elected senior European member of the Legislative Council in 1923, Mr Nelson became one of the leaders of the Mau movement when it was formed in 1926 in protest against the policies of the New Zealand administration. In 1927, the New Zealand Government ordered him to be deported to New Zealand for five years. With the aid of the former British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Stafford Cripps, then a prominent King's Counsel, Mr Nelson fought the Government’s decision in the Privy Council, but was unsuccessful in getting the deportation order revoked.

He returned to Apia in 1933 after five years’ exile, but was arrested a few months later with several Samoan chiefs on charges of sedition. After the trial, which took three months, he was sentenced to eight

months’ imprisonment with hard labour and exiled for a further 10-year term. Sent to Paparua Mr Nelson was sent to Paparua prison, Christchurch, but was released after an appeal to the New Zealand Supreme Court. The 10-year exile term remained unchanged, but was remitted by the Labour Government when it took office in 1935. Mr Nelson returned to Samoa, where he was given what was described as the greatest welcome ever seen in Apia. He led a delegation of Samoan chiefs to New Zealand in 1931 and in the same year was elected senior European member in the Samoan Legislative Council. In failing health, he died in 1944. Today, Mr Nelson is commemorated in Apia by the Nelson Memorial Library, opened last year. Mr Nelson presented Apia’s town clock in memory of those who served in World War I.