TROUBLE AT TONGA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17258, 6 September 1919, Page 9

TROUBLE AT TONGA.

GERMANS AND BRITISH. FEELING RUNNING HIGH. ASSAULT UPON OFFICIAL. [from our own correspondent.] VAVAU (Tongan Group), Aug. 11. Considerable feeling has been displayed | at Vavau between '.he British and German : residents, with the result that the British [ Consul at Nukualofa has been summoned !to deal with the matter. The trouble was brought to a head as the result of an assault upon a Government official by one of the German residents. As a result a petition containing the names of the British residents on the island has been forwarded to the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, demanding the immediate deportation of the offender,' together with the other German residents of the island. During the war the Germans have been kept tinder restraint, firearms having been taken from their possession, and they have been confined to their homes during the night time. But with the signing of the peace treaty the arrogance that has always characterised the German has broken out,'and Vavau is at present. in the throes of violent anti-British demonstrations. With a jiew to celebrating peace the Ton-an Government voted a sum of money to be expended on a three-day celebration, and the Germans en masse left Vavau for the island of Fofoa, leased by one of the German residents, where they held a demonstration of their own. The j concluding night of the peace celebrations was given to a dance held in the local ■ Courthouse, and promptly at eight o'clock | a native band commenced playing waltz | tunes for the dance. A few minutes later I the hall was beseiyed by the whole of the | Germans in Vavau, who crowded into the | hall and monopolised the floor. Without I any discussion the British residents immediately left the building and called a meeting to discuss the matter. On July 30 a British official had occasion to visit a local store, and while inside was confronted by one of the GerffSins, who, after abusing the official and the British j in general, concluded by catching hold of i him, tearing his clothes, and generally | rough-handling him. The official rushed t into the street and summoned the local j native police, but they were powerless to help, and the man was finally permitted to leave the shop, not being taken into custody. The Germans have been making trouble for some time now, and by advancing credit and supplying liquor have now the majority of the native chiefs on their side. The position is very awkward, inasmuch as the population of Vavau, as regards Europeans, is very limited, and naturally one must meet the Germans every few minutes in the only street Vavau possesses. The British have been passing the Germans without speaking, but that cannot , last for ever, and at the moment petty ■' grievances are temporarily forgotten until the arrival of the Consul. Should sentence , be passed upon the offender there is nc doubt that the German feeling towards the British residents will be worse than , before, for the whole of the Germans on the islands are all connected through intermarriage.