CANT BE BLUDGEONED

Evening Star, Issue 19777, 30 January 1928, Page 6

CANT BE BLUDGEONED

MR HOLLAND ON SAMOA

[Per United Prebb Association.] WESTPORT, January 30. Mr H. E. Holland, referring to Mr Coates’s last statement, said he took the strongest exception to the Prime Minister’s characterisation of his public utterances on Samoa as inflammatory statements. He was convinced that the majority of the public disapproved of the injustice which was being applied to Samoa, and he would be failing in his duty as Leader of the Opposition if he disregarded a public opinion on so important a subject, or neglected to raise a warning voice against a policy which so clearly was leading towards disaster.

When the Government’s policy was challenged the Minister, having no effective reply to the Opposition’s charge, fell back on an ancient Conservative tactic, and described the attitude of opponents as inflammatory. It was only a short step to the next inevitable charge that those who did not agree with tlie Government’s policy wore guiltv of disloyalty. Each succeeding phase of New Zealand’s administration in Samoa seemed marked with an increasing accumulation of folly, for it should he apparent to everyone that the Samoans cannot he bludgeoned into servility. Mr Coates’s latest move of sending an expeditionary force of six constables, heralded with a flourish of trumpets and a proclamation as to their respective sizes, if it did not set the Samoans rocking with laughter, might he accepted by them for another “ big stick” threat. It was as if Mr Coates, having discovered the house on fire, set out to extinguish the. flames by pouring petrol upon thorn. Referring to the Royal Commission’s report, Mr Holland said that surely if the printed form of the report could he furnished to the Press nearly two months ago, there was no reason why it should not have been furnished to members of Parliament at the time. There was certainly something to be said for the delay in printing the evidence, but even that should have been ready in less than two months’ time. He was still waiting to hear the explanation of Mr Coates and the Administration in connection with the Foster case.