POSITION IN SAMOA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20361, 19 March 1928, Page 10

POSITION IN SAMOA.

NO DANGER AT PRESENT. ALARMIST REPORTS DEPRECATED. MORE ADHERENTS DISPERSED. STATEMENT BY PRIME MINISTER (Special to Daily Times.) WELLINGTON, March 17. A meeting of Cabinet was held to-day, and it ts understood that members had under consideration reports by the Administrator and officials who returned recently from Samoa. The position in Samoa was discussed, and later the Prime Minister (Mr J. G. Coates) made the following statement: — While the Government is not yet able to make a full statement as to the position of affairs in Samoa arid as to its immediate intentions, 1 wish the public of New Zealand to understand that the alarmist reports that have been recently circulated from unofficial sources in Samoa are greatly exaggerated. My information is that notwithstanding the activities of the Man there dees not appear to be any present danger of a breach of the peace in Samoa. Provocative and ill-informed comments on the position are not. of course, helpful in maintaining peace, but lives and property in Samoa are to-day not in jeopardy. The large numbers of Man adherents who had gathered in Apia have now dispersed to their homes, and while I do not wish to be understood as implying that the position in Samoa is yet satisfactory or that the law is being complied with, 1 can see no reason why, jn the absence of mischievous interference, any breach of the peace should occur. As soon as the Government is in a position to do so it will make a detailed announcement of any action it may decide to take.