LABOUR FOR SAMOA

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 30, 4 August 1921, Page 7

LABOUR FOR SAMOA

THE JAVANESE SUGGESTION

VIEWS OF NETHERLANDS

AUTHORITIES.

The employment of Javanese labour in Western Samoa, a question which has been i'aised-many times in"-the Pacific Islands and New Zealand, was mentioned by a Fiji Times representative in an interview with the Hon. E. P. Leo (Minister of External Affairs), when the latter was at Suva.

My. Leo said that advantage was taken to bring the Government's request before Count Limburg, ex-Governor-General of -the Netherlands, when his Excellency was . recently in the -Dominion. Count Limburg expressed himself in sympathy with the request of the New Zealand Government to recruit Javanese labour for Western Samoa,, and said there would be no real difficulty in supplying the relatively small labour needs of Samoa with Javanese coolies were it not for the fact that if the» Netherlands authorities gave this permission to New Zealand on behalf of the Samoan Administration, it could not possibly refuse similar requests from the "French Government for labour for New Caledonia and the United States Government for labour for the Philippines. His Excellency said it was quite impossible, in, view of the expanding demand for labour to develop the Netherlands' own tropical possessions, to allow Javanese labour ..to be recruited for foreign territories where such labour had not previously worked. Up to the present ihe Netherlands Bast Indies Government had not withdrawn permission . to the British authorities to' recruit Javanese labour for the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States, and British Borneo 1 for the reason that Javanese'labour had been recruited and employed m those territories for the last, forty or fifty years. His Excellency said, however, 'that it was quite possible that this recruitment might have to be' considered by the Batayian Government in the future. As regards 'recruiting of Javanese labour for new territories during the war period,- hia Excellency stated that all the East Indies industries were flourishing, to such an extent, as the result of boom prices that the labour could not be spared. It was true that tlio trade depression which is so adversely affecting our own and all .other Pacific Islands was also releasing a pood deal of Javanese labour owing to the closing down of plantations; but his Excellency made it quite clear that the reason why this labour could not now or in the future be spared by the Netherlands authorities was that they wore embarking on a definite policy for the development of the vast areas of virgin lands in their own' islands of Sumatra, .Borneo, Sumbawa, Flores, Timor, eto. Millions of Javanese coolies would be required for this developmental work, arid for this season Count Limburg" van Stirum stated quite definitely that there was no possibility of any permission being granted to recruit Javanese labour for obroad. He further- stated that he had given precisely tha aamo answer to a ropresenta-tivo-.of New Caledonia and to the American Governor, of the Philippines, both of whom paid a special visit to hia Excellency nt Batavia for the purpose of pressing the claims of their Governments for this labour.