SAMOA.

Marlborough Express, Volume LIIII, Issue 82, 8 April 1920, Page 8

SAMOA.

MR HOLLAND'S, CRITICISM.

«IR J\MES ALLEN IN REPLY

[Press Association.!

AVELLINGTON, April 8

Sir James Allen has offered a -few •comments on a statement made in fcehalf of the Labor Party by Mr Holland, MJL\, regarding the Government's policy in Sanioa. "Mr Holly nd's statement amounts to this," said the Minister, "that he would prefer to .see £h£ islands revert to a Btate of ;iatiire father than that in•jdeptured''labor should be brought into the islands. He is face to face with the. fact that the lessening pi • cultivation in. these islands will shorten tfbe supplies of food and other necessaries for very many people who now draw their supplies from these islands, and for very many more who ■will do co if the land is more intensively cultivated. If the islands are Allowed to revert to a state of nature it must :.tfeet the cost of living. Does Mr Holland want the cost of living to be increased, as it must inevitably be increased if we are going to cut down the world's supplies of such commodities as margerine, oil-cake, rubber, # cocoa, kapoc, sugar, tea, coffee, cotton, and soap? If we are •to allow tjieso and other tropical lands to relapse into a state of nature and to go out of cultivation, this will be the inevitable result. Is the world to stand still or go'back? That is my answer to Mr Holland' 4 point."