THE SAMOAN MANDATE.

Mataura Ensign, 3 May 1919, Page 5

THE SAMOAN MANDATE.

NEW ZEALAND’S POSITION. MR, MASSEY STATES HIS CASE. (From R, Rilev, Official Journalist.) PARIS,; Feb. 9, 1919.

It threatened for a time at the pro traced sessions of the Council of the Allied and Associated Powers that tlit representatives of. tho British Dominions. would have more difficulty in gaining acceptable control of the German colonics m-Africa and the' South .Pacdu than that generally experienced by their armies in capturing them. In the course of the protracted conversations before the Council of the Powers Mr Massey assured President Wilson that be would speak in no spirit of opposition to tho principle of the League of Nations, but the nearest precedents of history had all ended in failure, So he hoped that the Congress now sitting would not end in the same way, hut would bring us nearci to the period of universal peace fm which so many people were anxiously looking. As far as danger irom enemy invasions wa-s.concerned, Australia and New Zealand were “in the same boat.’' The weakness of one was the weakness of both, Samoa, was of vital importance to New Zealand. It. was situated on tiie main trade route, from the South Pacific to Europe through the- Pamum. Canal, if, hy any chance, Samoa were ji enemy hands Now Zealand would he strangled. He hoped that he would be able to induce President- Wilson to sec tho question from New Zealand’s stand point One of the reasons put forth in sup port ‘of the mandatory system was that ;t would benefit the inhabitants of the territories formerly in the pos-ession qi Germany. He.'could claim with confidence that New Zealand had already done in litis respect as well as, or better thnp, any maiidalory power was over .likely, Id**do., , The speaker referred , to the control' of rhe . Cook Archipelago, • which- had been assigned to the Dominion about til) years. The experiments made by New Zealand in administering this territory- had been successful. When- Samoa was taken over at the beginning of tho war the same policy of improvement was continued there, the Maoris Cook Islanders and Samoans were of the same rare and spoke dialects of the same language. TV any change, in control were to he made tin inhabitants of Samoa would ho intense lv dissatisfied. Ho asked tho Council to compare the treatment; accorded to i hose natives with the treat men of Airman until es by due Germans, ino difference oetween the mandatory primsple and that instituted hy .\ew /.calami v. as similar to the differ enee between leasehold and freeUo.u tenure-. No individual would put the same energy- m>o a. leasehold 01 UDiin ' proven country as into a freehold, it ltV:i t-ne same wit a Governments, they must have security ot tenure to encourage them to develop Urn i err'd orie. unuer iln-if control.

'I he necessity tor development bad also noeii urged as a reason tor mandatory control. He (.Vlr .Massey) agreed ii wav necessary to increase pro uoer.cti, hut in .such news special financial arrangements would nave to be made. Rle saw .serious difficulties anead for me mandatory power jn financing tile territories lob.- placed tinuei- iii. .r eonum. i lie only s. elinry in isimli eases would he llh* u-rr.te.ry nelu tn i iiisi and ue douoti'ii 71 mones coin'd on ia..seu uruicr such conditions except ..c ;. ■ ruinous lace oi liiu nsi, tie mstaoeed New (tunica, winch m the Inane tuiu.il opening up hy rad ways anu roans and i-.nm- liut-iuaiiuu-to*y power vmuiu prohahly he'Aiisira mi. uu me ereoir- oi a gOiermrienc like the Commonwealth inarm eould oe raised fur the deve.opulent of New Guinea which, before it could support a. civilised population, would' ' n (pi. re docks, pilbuc. buddings, telegraphs ami a limauer id other iitdilie-.

The new lemtory ic.vail’, until dcv. *opr’tl, would .nut alford . Hicient sccunry for loans. For those purposes this process -<ouul-not ho as suece,-study set in motion by a mandatory power as by 4*. ■ strung, btate to which me territory was annexed. I ideas theme territories' were annexed to some .strong Bia.le tlie- Hermans would certainly attempt: to get ilu:in liaei;.' Ail knew what Lennon intrigue and p.-acciui penetration meant. It had boon experienced own in die Antipodes. i’im financial value of Samoa was a mere trifle in comparison lo our war losses, lio appealed to the Pre.-ideut of the United Sates to look the whole question from the New Zealand point,, of view. He would ask him to tread trie, period immediately alter the American War of Independence. What would ■’Washington and Hamilton and the- others associated with them have done or said had it been, -suggested that a mandatory (tower, or oven the colonist, themselves as mandatories of a League of Rations, should be given charge of the vast territories in North America, nor, at, that Line occupied.

llicre was little doubt, Uiat I,lm American culonisis would have scouted any such suggestion, amt rightly so, lot had anything of the. sort taken place :ho United States could not pos.v.My have* grown into one nl the greatest powers of the world, as It was m-day. New Zealand th sired to _ protect the future citizens of the South Pacific from the posibilities of having ,n the future some turbulent and ambitious Power in Hiac part of the world,.