MANDATE FOR NEW ZEALAND

Evening Star, Issue 17031, 30 April 1919, Page 6

MANDATE FOR NEW ZEALAND

TO CONTROL MOST OF SAMOA. WE GET 1,000 MILES OF IT. AMERICA RETAINS 75 MILES GERMANY RENOUNCES ALL HER RIGHTS. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. OFFICIAL. LONDON, April 19. The revised draft of the Mandate for the New Zealand control of Samoa has been prepared. It is impossible at this stage to make the details public, but the main principles may be outlined. Germany renounces all her rights, and the allied Powers entrust the government of the islands to His Britannic Majesty, to bo exercised by the New Zealand Government, with full legislative, administrative, and judicial power over the islands as an integral po&ion of New Zealand territory, to which the New Zealand laws shall be applied, subject to any necessary local modifications. A trust is to be accepted for the wellbeing and development of the natives, and to that end New Zealand undertakes to prohibit the slave trade of forced labor and the sale of spirituous liquors. There will be no necessary training of natives, except for police and local defence, and no fortifications or military or naval bases shall be erected. It is provided that if the natives at any time express a desire to be united with New Zealand, and if the council of the League of Nations consider that desire well founded and conscious, the allied Powers will agree that effoct shall be given to it, and the islands will bo incorporated in New Zealand. The' pi*ovisions generally represent a marked difference from the original proposals, when the matter was discussed before the council of the Peace Conferuce. The safeguards advocated by the oversea delegates have been accepted. Apparently it was not clearly understood in New Zealand that a Mandate could not be accepted by Great Britain for any former German colonies in the Pacific, so there never was any conflict of opinion between New Zealand and the Mother Country delegates. Mr Massey throughout advocated the British policy, with certain safeguards from the Dominion point of view. The area of the Samoan Group formerly held by Germany is over 1,000 miles. The portion occupied by America is about 75 miles.