IN SAMOA

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 4, 5 July 1927, Page 10

IN SAMOA

IS ALL WELL?

MINISTER RETURNS

PEOBABLE ACTION

Is all well with Samoa? This question has arisen in the public mind because of the discussions which have taken place in Parliament, and which have received some publicity from Samoa itself. In the House of Representatives the Prime Minister has stated that trade and liquor have been at the bottom of the Samoan agitation, but Mr. H. E. Holland (Leader of tho Opposition) has drawn attention to the question of deportations and thq acts of the Administrator (Major-Gen-eral Sir George Richardson) in his efforts to suppress agitation. Deportation of two chiefs has taken place, and further deportations have been threatened. NO COMPULSION? It is stated that further confirmation of the Government's announcement that no compulsion was used or threatened in obtaining signatures to the petition of the planters in Samoa, supporting the Administration and deprecating the activities of the agitating element, is contained in a message received yesterday from the Administration.

The advice repeats the previous denial that pressure was brought to bear on the signatories to this petition. It says that the petition was circulated by Mr. K. Myer, president of the Planters' Association, and by Mr, A. K. Cockroft. Not only are these planters long residents of Samoa, having •worked their plantations under the German and successive Administration, but Mr. Myer is a full-blooded German. Mr. Cockroft is British, and is in partnership with Mr. Myer.

The Minister of External Affairs (the Hon. W. Nosworthy) returned from Samoa to-day. Mr. Nosworthy had a prepared statement putting forth the Administration's point of view, but this statement was not to be released for publication until it had been perused by 1 the Prime Minister. Mr. Coates was delayed until considerably after 1 p.m. with a conference between the Financial Adviser to the Government (Colonel J. J. Esson), Mr. E. E. Hayes (Secretary to the Treasury), and Departmental heads, and he did not see Mr. Nosworthy until late this afternoon, although he had been waiting all through the morning. DRASTIC STEPS. When in Samoa, Mr. Nosworthy made it clear that he was prepared to take drastic steps to stop the agitation. He said that he was satisfied the present Administration was in the best interests of all. The agitation was not prompted by any regard for the real interests of the natives, and any' success it had achieved had been duo to misrepresentation. Efforts to disunite and upset a fine race like the Samoans was criminal, and deserved-to be treated as a crime. The New Zealand Government accepted the mandate as a sacred trust. The Planters' Association had assured him that it dissociated itself from the Citizens' Committee.

Mr. Nosworthy told Mr. Nelson, one of the deputation, that if there were further agitation the Citizens' Committee would be held directly responsible. He would give a reasonable and fair time for them to undo the trouble. He was not going to have wool pulled over his eyes. He was giving the committee a first and last reasonable chance to undo the intrigue, before action was threatened.

Mr. KosworthV 's statement, which is understood to be very lengthy ' covers much of the ground already known through discussions in the House and publication of communications from Samoa, and it is understood that the Government is prepared to give strong support to the Minister's attitude on the question of preventing the disaffected Europeans from interfering with the Samoans. '