KEEP ORDER IN SAMOA

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 56, 15 September 1928, Page 9

KEEP ORDER IN SAMOA

OPINIONS AT GENEVA NO NEED TO FEAR LEAGUE United Press Association—By Electric Tele* graph—Copyrifiht. (Received 15th Sept., 10 ajn.) GENEVA, 14th September. The Swiss delegate, M. Rappard, for a long time associated with the Mandates Commission, expressed an important opinion on Samoa during the Sixth Committee's discussion on the Mandates Report. * . He .said that the unrest in Samoa and the ; resistance offered put the Government in the impossible position of being unable to govern. Thus General Richardson, to whom he desired to pay a tribute, very properly asked for assistance to maintain order. Two warships were sent, but were told not to use force, as it might create an unfortunate impression in the League. It was most unfortunate that respect to the League should prevent the Government from maintaining order and governing. If the Government's ward was naughty, then it must be taught to obey. They desired it to be known that the League in no way wished to tie the hands of Governments in the task of maintaining order. , The Spanish delegate, Senor Paiacios, another member of the Mandates Commission, said that in regard to Samoa the Commission was satisfied that it was not only the right, but the duty, of the Mandatory to take the necessary steps to maintain order. Sir Jas. Parr paid a warm tribute to the work of the Mandates Commission in bringing success to the new system of ruling captured territories. It had been clearly shown regarding Samoa.- New\ Zealand, instead of being harsh and tyrannical, had been too easy going, alas, and a handful of agitators, unappreciativo of this fact, made mischief. He wel« corned the speeches of M. 'Rappard and Senor Palacios because they would dispel the idea, overpxevalent around the Pacific, that the mandatory was precluded from being firm for fear of what the people at Geneva might think. . Such direct comment embodied in the speeches, not appearing in the Mandates Commission's report, greatly strengthens its approval of General Richardson's administration. It also more directly suggests that there is no need for timidity in the face of agitation, lest it offend the League.