PROHIBITION IN SAMOA

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 130, 29 November 1919, Page 7

PROHIBITION IN SAMOA

EUROPEAN RESIDENTS' PROTEST.

. European residents of Samoa discussed the proclamation prohibiting the importation of intoxicating liquor on 31st October, when, according to the Samoa Times, the predominant attitude towards the proclamation was one of deep resentment against an edict which one speaker stigmatised as "the most "glaring attempt to control the liberty of British people that had ever been made under the British flag." The Chairman read a petition addressed to Colonel Tate, the Administrator of Samoa, and giving reasons why the signatories considered that the proclamation should be rescinded.

After some discussion, the following motion was adopted-: "This meeting wishes to emphatically protest against the high-handed action of the authorities, namely, establishing prohibition on this territory by military proclamation. We claim that if prohibition is necessary here, we, the residents, are the right ones tq decide the question, and should have been consulted, whereas to use the powerful machinery of military law (implicitly obeyed during the war but now, twelve months after war has ceased, intolerable) has raised intense indignation and distrust amongst us, and we urgently insist that such an undemocratic and utterly uncalled-for mea-ure be withdrawn immediately." At the close of the meeting those present were requested to sign the petition.