BACK TO SAMOA

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 13, 15 July 1936, Page 13

BACK TO SAMOA

MR. NELSON LEAVES

BANISHMENT ENDED

HOPES FOR FUTURE

After nearly eight years of almost unbroken exile, Mr. O. F. Nelson, of Samoa, is going home. Accompanied by three of his daughters, he was due to leave Wellington today by the Government steamer Maui Pomare. He is not coming back. "I like New Zealand, I like its people," he smiled, "but—"

He is going back to take over the leadership of the Mau. "It is not a question of reinstatement," he remarked to an interviewer this morning before the steamer left. "My people have had full confidence in me all the time I have been away from them, and I have been acting for them." • - ■ ■

Mr. Nelson was the central figure in a long trial in 1934, after his first period of banishment, when he was convicted on charges that practically amounted to sedition. In March, 1934, he was sentenced to eight-months' im-1 prisonment and ten years' banishment from Samoa. His gaol sentence was cancelled in June, 1934,' and the Labour Government has remitted the greater part of his period of banishment.

He was not particularly anxious, to discuss the relationship between the New Zealand authorities and the Samoan people. "At present," he said, "things are at a critical stage, and the position willhave to be handled with tact and diplomacy. I am anxious to do everything to assist in a settlement, for the happiness of my own people, and to the credit of the new Government. I do not wish to elaborate on the matters at,issue, but developments . depend on how far the Government will grant concessions to the Samoans. The less that is said to create any doubt in the minds of either side the better it will be for all concerned. I am very anxious to assist without prejudice to the claims of my people." Mr. Nelson pointed out that the big difficulty was the difference between the viewpoint of the European and the. viewpoint of the native. The two, he emphasised, would have to be reconciled. The Government had every intention of arriving at a conciliation, and trying to get the Samoans to forget the past. "The trouble, of course, is to do that,'; he added. ADMINISTRATIVE POLICY. J He thought that a new policy of administration of the Samoan's affairs might go a long way towards helping the native to forget the past and restore confidence. "Indeed, I feel that a distinct change of policy and outlook is very essential." Mr. Nelson believed that , there would be a better understanding in the future, and that the present negotiations would result in an amicable settlement of the long-stand-ing controversy. It might be necessary for both sides to give and take a little, as conditions in Samoa and ■New Zealand were so different that what might be applicable in this country might not be applicable in Samoa. .The civil servants in Samoa, for instance, were executive officers who had to carry out the policy of the Government of the day, and they might find it hard to carry out an absolutely new policy to the satisfaction of the Samoans and the Government; ' •■ ' ■ . ■! -

The previous Government had regarded the Mau as rebellious, he continued, but by a change of outlook a more reasonable interpretation of the native point of view had been obtained. The Mau flag had been converted into a flag of conciliation, and that and other changes made prospects more hopeful for a better understanding. He added that with the exception of the paid officials, who, he thought, were sympathetic, the Mau organisation in 'Samoa was almost 100 per cent, strong. The Samoans were one people now.