DR GUY SCHOLEFIELD

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10563, 14 April 1920, Page 6

DR GUY SCHOLEFIELD

PRESSMAN & MISSIONARY INTERESTING TALK ON VARIOUS TOPICS. Dr Guy Scholefield, lately London representative of the Associated Press of New Zealand, was the guest of honour at tho New Zealand Club luncheon at the Y.M.C.A. yesterday. Mr W. B. Spencer, M.A. (president), presided over a good gathering. DISTINGUISHED CAREER. In extending a hearty greeting to tho guest of tho occasion, Mr Spencer said that it gave them great pleasure to welcome back after twelve years, Dr Scholefield, who had distinguished himself academically at one of the great universities at Home, and had done great service for our hoys during tho war, by editing the “New Zealander,” gratis for them. He had been on both the French and the Italian fronts, and had" been tho first pressman to visit the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow. Dr Scholefield had won tlio degree of Doctor of Economics at the London University; and tho Seat esteem in which ho was held at ome was shown by tho fact that so conservative a seat of learning as the Oxford University had invited him to bo its examiner in Imperial History. (Applause.) He had visited the Pacific Islands more than once,. including the recent Parliamentary’ trip to Samoa, etc., and had written an important book on tho problems of tho Pacific. (Applause.) BRITISH NORMALITY. Dr Scholefield, who was received with applause, said that he held that he had been very fortunate in having, been at Homo at the time that he was. His outstanding vision of the great war was tho Battle of Ncuve Ohapelle, not. because it was ono of the greatest battles, but because it was tho first occasion on which the British began to climb out of the Slough of Despond, and advance from the Flanders mud. But tho most wonderful thing was undoubtedly the groat spirit shown in London and elsewhere during the fout* or five days after the Armistice. That spirit showed what the British people were made of. (Applause.) For five years the British nation never laughed and never wept; and that great normality it was that had enabled them to bear-every-thing that came, whether misfortune or good fortune—though everybody knew that Britain only won one battle in the war, and that the last (laughter) —with an even mind, and to win tho war not only for ourselvra. but for our Allies. (Applause.) When we were told, therefore, that England was full of Bolshevism or revolution, he thought that wo would do best not to believe it, because tho British mind ’.was entirely foreign to all these things. (Applause.) . Ho had heard a. great deal about "direct action” in England, so ho went-to the Trades Congress meeting in September last. There he found that only five men got up in support of direct action, and they could ,not get a vote on it. And when r»e question camp to a vote at the recent congress. direct action was defeated by two or three million votes. (Applause.) Scapa Flow, where tho Grand Fleet was located during tho war, was just a hare stretch of land, like Somes Island, except that it had Uo vegetation. No provision had been made before the war for accomodating the fleet; and that showed that Britain had not prepared for and had not wanted tho war. (Applause.) He had been so unlucky as to leave the Grand Fleet just four days before tho Battle of Jutland. Or, perhaps he ought to say "so lucky,” as tho vessel he was on, the Invincible, womb down with all hands. A LABOUR OF LOVE. He had been very pleased to do what he could for our boys at tho front. The editing of the “New Zealander” had been with him a labour of love. We could never do enough for our hoys. (Applause.) They had held our flag high throughout the war, and set vg as a nation a very high ideal to live np to. (Applause.) Dealing with the question of our Samoan mandate, ho said that the British Colonial Office had so protected and looked after Samoans within our sphere nnd the Pacific Islanders generally for many years past, that they could not look after and govern themselves. They had not an ounce of the competitive spirit left in them. Owing to the good care that Now' Zealand had taken of the Rarotoncans, ono of the branches of the Polynesian race, wo were looked np to, by the Polynesians as their natural protectors, and eo tho Samoan mandate very naturally came to New Zealand. (Applause.) OUR RESPONSIBILITY IN SAMOA. As Now Zealanders and as Britishera, wo could not but recognise out re, sponsibility for these peoples, and wo were in honour bound to accept it. (Applause.) Wo should not regard tho mandate from the point of view of whether wo could make it pay or not, but upon tho point of viow of what was right and of what we ought to do. (Applause.) No doubt wo could make Samoa pay, if wo disregarded the interests of the Samoans aa completely as the Germans had done; hut wo could not do that. (Applause.) There were two schools of thought in regard to Samoa, aud ho could not say which was the more dangerous of the two. —ono which would have made Samoa pay and one which held that we ought not to he thoro at all. But, as he had said, Samoa could not govern' itself; and were wo to leave Samoa to the Americans, to do as they had done at Hawaii; to tho French, who had depopulated tho Society Islands; or to tho Gormans, or to the Japanese? We must, he contended, take np tho white man’s burden; because we, Britishers and New- Zealanders, had taught these peoples to lean upon us and trust to us. (Applause.) SAMOA’S ECONOMIC FUTURE. As to the economic future of Samoa, it was said that without indentured labour the European plantations would go back to a state of nature and become breeding-places from which tho rhinoceros beetle would overrun the Samoan plantations also. But he hold that tho system of indentured labour could not lust. (Applause.) In epito of everything that was said to the contrary, it was becoming more and more difficult to got indentured labour. The planters could not gel Chinese coolies now at.double the old rates of pay; and, again, wo were up against tho question of tho relations of tho Chinese coolies with the native women, and the growing up of a race of Chinese JialJ-caetca. That was , a

problem which the Gormans had not cared to face, but which wo must face. (Applause.) Tho system, therefore, could not last; but perhaps Chinese labour might bo continued foi two or throe years, till, as tho result of educational influences, the Samoans were able to take the plantations on themselves. (Applause.) Wo could probably make money out of Samoa as the Germans had done ; hut ho thought that wo should derive much greater and more lasting satisfaction if, after a few years, we could look back upon our work there, as in Rarotonga, and say that we had done for them what we had done in New Zealand for the Maori race. (Applause.) He had left New Zealand a journalist, and had come back, it seemed, a missionary. (Laughter and applause.) Ho could only hope that the work in Samoa would be taken up in the spirit he had indicated; and if anything ho said helped towards that result he would be very pleased indeed. Mr Spencer said that they were very glad to welcome Dr. Scholefield, both as journalist and as missionary. (Applause.) He only hoped that ho would have opportunities of speaking throughout New Zealand as he had spoken there that day, and that ho would make many proselytes. (Applause.) We should then, as a nation, have a higher idea of our duties under the mandate which had been placed in our hands. (Applause.) A hearty vote of thanks to Dr. Scholefield and the singing of the National Anthem closed. the proceedings.