The Evening Star THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 1929. CHINESE IN SAMOA.

Evening Star, Issue 20254, 15 August 1929, Page 8

The Evening Star THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 1929. CHINESE IN SAMOA.

The fracas between the police and Chinese coolies in Apia on Sunday appears to have been lively while d lusted. There were fourteen coolie casualties,, most of them caused by batons, but four Chinese were wounded by re volvcr shots when the police, in sell defence, were forced to use their firearms, a warning being first- given by discharges into the air. Two bundled and fifty coolies took part- in the affray, and some of the police, both Eu rojoeans and Samoans, were slightly injured by stones. So the brief message published from Apia recorded. It suggested also that the matter was in some way concerned ’with a strike, and Mi Holland, Leader of the Labour Party, would have been deaf to quite a number of appeals which the affair must have made to his curiosity if he had not wanted to know more of it. There has been enough trouble with Samoans in the last two years to make trouble with Chinese in the fretful islands the most unwelcome prospect as an addition to it, and Chinese labour on the indenture system has to be' very tactfully regulated not to produce trouble. The fact that we have heard so little of the indenture system in Samoa during the last decade provides the best assurance that it is carefully regulated there It is satisfactory to learn that this collision was not caused by any grievances against European control, but, inchid ing the strike which was the immediate occasion of violence, in its origins no more than a quarrel between two Chinese “tongs” or clans—a mete family affair. It might have happened with more bloodshed, in China., l.he casualties that wore caused bv the police, and incurred by them,, wore the price of their efforts to preserve the peace. , Ten years ago the indenture system for Chinese in Samoa was a cause of strong concern to ,the Labour Parly. The cry for its abolition was made almost a chief issue of a General Election. The authorities have always been

alive to the dangers of the system, which up to the present stage it has not been found possible entirely to dispense with, because Samoa must have labour, and Samoans have quite the smallest necessity to work. One of the most hampering disabilities of the British in the New Hebrides' is that they have been unable to get native labour on the same terms as the French. When New Zealand assumed the mandate indentured labourers in Samoa, who had been brought there by the Germans, numbered 2,000. To get rid of them all would have meant that the plantations would not only never have been able to be extended; they would soon have gone back to their natural state, and the rhinoceros beetle and other pests would have reigned supreme. The strictest conditions were; however, imposed on the system. The contract period is three years, and the labourer must return at the end of that time unless lie rc-cngages for a further term, lie cannot ho re-engaged for more than one. The Administration ' guarantees employment, and assigns the labourers to employers. They are not allowed to marry Samoan women. The latest departmental report on Sam - a states that there were last year 935 Chinese and 146 Melanesian labourers, compand with 346 and 100 a ■ year bc’o:e. “ File fact that the Melanesians do not wish to be repatriated, and that largo numbers of Chinese when due for repatriation apply for permission to extend their engagement or to remain pormaJ nenliy iu ilia territory, indicates that

the imported labourers aro' satisfied , with their treatment and the condi- ' lions under which they labour. The ' experiments on Government plantations j gradually to substitute Samoans For t Chinese have showW that it will bo • many years before ihea! native labour ] can be obtained ■ fo’’ permanent work : Samoans will engage, for labour under ] contract involving absence from their i village's for a few days or weeks, but j , \Vill not work consistently for longer | ‘ periods.” An increasing number of j Tokelau'' islanders, however, who arc j ; also subjects of Now Zealand, arc be- ] ginning to take, the place' of Chinese, ( being more inclined to migrate owing f to the over-population of their own f islands. j