SAMOAN PROBLEMS

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 150, 25 June 1921, Page 9

SAMOAN PROBLEMS

VISIT OF THE MINISTER

Tho Minister of External Affairs (the Hon. E. P Lee) left by the Main Trunk express yesterday for Auckland, where he will join the Tofua to-d'tiy for Western Samoa. The Minister will be accompanied on his visit by Mrs. Lee, Mr. E. N. G. Poulton (private secretary), and Mir: J. D. Gray (Secretary of the External Affairs Department). The itinerary of tbw trip is as follows :—Leave Auckland 10 a.m. to-day, arrive Suva Cm the 29th instant, Nukelofa 3rd July, Haapai sth July, Vavau 6th July, and Apia 7bh July. Mr. Lee hopes to be able to spenrti about a fortnight in Apiii conferring with the Samoan Administrator, the officers of the Administration, the Native chiefs, and representatives of the European population resident in the island. In a brief conversation with a Posb representative before his departure, Mr. Loe said his visit to Samoa was diio to an undertaking arrived at during the Parliamentary.session last year, that the Right Hon. Mr. Massey and he1 would go to Samoa in the recess to deal withi a number of matters affecting th& oarry-ing-Dut of the mandate for the government of the. Island /by New Zealandl. "Unfortunately," said Mr. Le», "M*. Massey:having to leave for the Imperial Conference in London, he was prevented from making the, visit to Samoa., but will probably do so on his return when opportunity offers. Conseq ?ntly the Government decided that, as jlinister ol External Affairs, I should go. Many matters have arisen since tho visit of the Parliamentary party requiring attention, and the main object of my visit is to go into these,' and the whole condition of affairs existing at the Island, and to deal with some problems which it may bo possible to satisfactorily settle on tha spot.' I will return to New Zealand by way of Sydney, where it is proposed that I should confer with a member of the Federal Government, who is in charge of the Department which' administers the mandate over German New Guinea. Another factor ', which has influenced my going to Sydney is that it will enable me to return more quickly to New Zealand thap I would otherwise be able to do wer« I to wait for th* regular Island steamar."