PUNISHMENT OF MAU LEADER

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 75, 21 December 1928, Page 6

PUNISHMENT OF MAU LEADER

HON. O. F. NELSON’S COMMENTS

Dominion Special Service.

Auckland, December 20.

■ “The deportation of Tamasese from Samoa to Mount. Eden Gaol as the latest move on the Samoan political chessboard must be as big a surprise to most people in New Zealand as it is to me, said the Hon. O. F. Nelson this morning. “Until the responsibility for this action is definitely located and the new Government’s policy in respect to the Samoan trouble has been announced. I prefer not to make any comment. Tamasese, though a loyal supporter of the Mau from the outset, look no active part until wholesale arrests of Mau people were made by the New Zealand division of the Royal Navy. He was then by unanimous request of the Mau called upon to take up the lead. It must therefore be assumed that the course he has followed was laid down for him by the Mau, and his actions have been in conformity with the wishes of the Samoan people, It will be remembered that Tamasese was one of the first to whom the Administrator applied the full machinery of the Samoan Offenders Ordinance of 1924. Ho was banished from his home and de prived of his chiefly titles. Great resentment was felt by Samoans at the time. It was one of the fundamental causes of the trouble which ultimatelyled to the formation of the Mau. Tamasese will be the first Samoan who is to be incarcerated in a New Zealand gaol as a result of his political views, but not the first who has been imprisoned for political purposes. If this policy is to be continued there does not seem to be any doubt that the New Zealand gaols will .soon be overfilled with Samoan political prisoners,"