Disappointed By Refusal Of Help

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31169, 20 September 1966, Page 1

Disappointed By Refusal Of Help

(New Zealand Press Association >

AUCKLAND, September 19.

The refusal of the United States to give aid to Western Samoa was hard to understand when she was pouring millions of dollars into American Samoa, said Masiofo Fetaui Mata’afa, wife of the Prime Minister of Western Samoa, the Hon. Fiame Mata’afa.

Masiofo, who arrived in Auckland today to attend the Red Cross conference at Taupo, was asked to comment on her husband’s statement that he was prepared to seek assistance from Communist states if he was unable to get help for his country from the West. Last month he had received a letter from the United States Secretary of State (Mr Rusk) saying the United States could not lend aid to Western Samoa. Masiofo said she had been too busy preparing to come to New Zealand to discuss the issue with her husband and she was commenting personally, not as a politician. “When we compare the great amount of aid the United States has given to other countries and we put in one small request which is turned down we feel there must be some motive behind it,” she said. Western Samoa’s greatest need was aid for agricultural

production, Masiofo said. Many implements were required as they had been working with primitive tools. The country was still suffering from the aftermath of the hurricane last January and a food shortage still reigned. Flour, rice and sugar was being received through the Food and Agriculture Organisation. The New Zealand Red Cross society had been sending powdered milk but more was needed. It was too soon to know what effects the food shortage was having on the health of the Western Samoans, Masiofo said, but it had been noticed that more babies were suffering from malnutrition. Masiofo, who is president of the Western Samoa Red Cross, said she was attending the New Zealand conference mainly for educational reasons. “I am a fairly new president and I want to learn more about how it functions.”