THE SORROWS OF SAMOA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20743, 14 June 1929, Page 10

THE SORROWS OF SAMOA

A POLITICAL DEADLOCK. By Kenneth Gbinuno, B.A. Perhaps the Samoans themselves and the Leader of the Opposition are the only people in the whole world —with the possible exception of one or two brokea-hearted military policemen—who think of Samoa as a vast or important place. To the average New Zealander it is but one of hundreds of dots on the Pacific. In his mind there are associated Fiji (bananas and the Dunedin Exhibition), Hawaii (surfing and pineapples), Tahiti (immorality and oranges), Samoa (Robert Louis Stevenson and insurrection), and a host of undifferentiated islets. Vaguely they are all part of-the glamorous South Sea isles, romantic places where beneath waving palms seductive damsels from “White Cargo” vamp whisky-sodden young men—where charming natives spend the time not taken up in being converted by missionaries in degenerating under the influence of the white man’s vices and diseases. In fact, the ideas in general of people in general are as indefinite on the question of Samoa as on any other subject. The 30-odd men who returned to New Zealand recently from their year’s bondage in the Pearl of the Pacific were all no doubt assailed by the same set of questions:

“ Hello, you back ? ” “Yeh.” “ Have a good time over there ? ” “ Aw, yeh.” " Brought no dusky brides back with you? Ha, ha! ” - “ No, got hack quite safe. Ha, ha! ”

“ What’s all the trouble over there anyway? It’s that Nelson, isn’t it?”— or “It’s the traders, isn’t it?or “Is it those damn missionaries? ” —or, in a hushed whisper, “ Aren’t the Germans behind it all? ”

“No, I don’t knots*; it’s very difficult; it’s just the Samoaus——” and he stops, baiTlccl by the complexity of the explanation demanded of him, then sighs with relief when his inquisitor gets on less difficult ground: “Hot over there, is it? AVhat ’did you eat? But what did you do with yourselves anyway over there? Drink much kava? Ha, hal ” And with that the Samoan question is settled for most. Others are mors persistent; some have been reading in between the lines of newspaper reports and are therefore choc-a-bloc with half .truths; some have fire, impracticable ideas about all the world being brothers—the leopard and the kid shall lie. down and sleep together sort of thing, although these would be the first to be shocked if this injunction were taken too literally; some have strong opinions about the “ cheek ” of these white people who barge into a happy, peaceful island, bringing drink and vice and other such vaunted products of civilization to degrade the noble native. Some have visions of a Samoa comparable only to the Belgian Congo of last century; some speak scornfully of the dirty niggers—why are they not taught a lesson?—many have ’the weirdest and most fantastic ideas of the state of affairs in Samoa, and all ask interminable questions. And all these questions are most difficult to answer justly. For all it is so tiny and insignificant, Samoa is a vastly self-important midget, chock full of individuality and character. People live by altogether different standards there. New Zealand is a small country, too, but New Zealand is dependent on European civilisation for rer standards, her customs, and her manners. Samoa, a thousand times smaller, is dependent on no one; she is as isolated sociologically and socially as she is geographically, and is a thousand times more individualistic and self-con-tained. 1 People lose sight of this when they draw parallels between Samoan and Maori. The Maoris are but a handful among a nation of white men; they are surrounded by the European atmosphere, while in Samoa there are but a handful of white men among a nation of natives. There, English is a foreign tongue, English manners and customs are kept up only in the few purely European households; Although the halfcastes have the same civil rights and social status as the white man, the majority of them the customary usages and manners of the English are as strange and difficult as is his harsh and intricate language. They speak the one about as well and as often as they confefrm to the other. And, needless to say, in the household of a white man married to a half-caste there is incessant conflict, the Samoan influence being often stronger in the end than the European. To a young New Zealander going there to live it is like entering a foreign country; he finds himself at first like a navigator in some strange sea in which a compass is useless. He has to acquire a new method of orientation, to accustom himselfv to a new set of standards. He has to accept people on new terms; the old set of values Is no longer valid, he must build up new ones. If he does not, he is thrown back on the incredibly dull, petty, and snobbish set of incredibly conventional and intolerant pure white wives of pure white planters and officials, and, of course, their husbands, Most wise young people prefer to revise their social code a little.

It being thus with the half-caste population, one can only, expect the natives to he intensely, more fixed in their national customs and beliefs. The cry of “ Samoa for the Samoans,” whether trumpeted forth as an administrative ideal by an idealistic Administrator, or plaintively wailed by a disgruntled and oppressed nation, seems to anyone who has lived in that country to be" a foolish phrase even more meaningless than most such slogans. Samoa quite obviously belongs to them already; wherever you go you see nothing but Samoans—the place literally reeks with them. Outside of Apia and its environs it takes d'fgent search to discover a white man. Afid no white man who is still in his senses when - he makes his escape from this siren land would ever wish to return, even with ears full of wax. No, the Samoans are welcome to their Samoa —were they not so incredibly conceited they would know that ,no one else wants their old island.

What then of the glamour and romance of the South Seas? What of the beauty and charm of these tropical islands and the enthralling fascination of island life? Are we not to believe Rupert Brooke when lie says of Samoa: " Imagine an island with the most perfect climate in the world, tropical, yet almost always cooled by a breeze from the sea. No malaria or other fevers. No dangerous beasts, snakes, or insects. Fish for the catching, and fruit for the plucking. And an earth and sky and sea of immortal loveliness. What more could civilisation give? Umbrellas? Rope? Gladstone bags? . . . Any one of the vast leaves of the banana is more waterproof than the most expensive woven stuff. And from the first tree you can tear off a long strip of fibre that holds better than any rope. And 30 seconds’ work on a great palm leaf produces a basket-bag which will carry incredible weights all day, and can bo thrown away in the evening. A world of conveniences. And the things which civilisation has left behind or missed by the way arc there, too, among the Polynesians: beauty and courtesy and mirth. I think there is no gift of mind or body that the wise value which these people lack. Hour after hour one may float in the warm lagoons, conscious, in the whole body, of every shred and current of the multitudinous water, or diving under in a vain attempt to catch the radiant butterfly-coloured fish that flit in and out of the thousand win : dows of their gorgeous coral palaces. Or go up, one of a singing flower-

garlanded crowd, to a shaded pool of a river in the bush, cool from the mountains. The blossom-hung darkness is streaked with the bodies that fling themselves, head or feet first, from the cliffs around the water, and the haunted forest-silence is broken by laughter. And after dark the black palms against a tropic night, the smell of the wind, the tangible moonlight like a white, dry, translucent mist, the lights in the huts, the murmur and laughter of passing figures, the passionate, queer thrill of the rhythm of some hidden dance.”

There is, of course, a reverse side. Besides the fact that a tiny scratch from one of the “ coral palaces ” may easily take several weeks to heal, the “ multitudinous water,” unless very carefully washed off, irritates the skin and brings on a persistent itch. Until you know them, the flower-garlanded crowd arc most difficult to talk to, and their views and general attitude most disconcerting and difficult to understand. Bathing in the shaded river pool is likely to give you Samoan ear—pain and discomfort for weeks. . And Brooke himself says, “It is the magic of a different way of life.” When the strangeness wears off, when one becomes accustomed to living in paradise, the beauty and the peace and the wondrous carefree laziness become merely a drug to the senses. And the drug habit has notoriously disastrous effects. One does not desire to transform one’s life into the unreal shadowy posturing of an opium dream. For the hopelessly world-weary and blase • who grieve for the futility of all human' endeavour, for these the Islands are fashioned as a haven of contentment, not for young, vigorous men in whose veins life still throbs valiantly. The Samoans are the only people perfectly fitted to live in Samoa; they need fear no invasion. . While it is most difficult to give simple answers to more general questions, there are still a few points on which anyone at all acquainted with conditions in Samoa can be quite definite.

Some people are so tender-hearted and have such' ready sympathies that they tend to discover injustices and oppression where none really exist. The soured spinster type, tod, lias so unpleasant a view of. mankind in general and the' male sex in particular that it cannot conceive of any opportunity for cruelly and oppression being neglected. And there in Samoa is a whole nation of poor, dear natives absolutely at the mercy of an autocratic male Government. All their warped motherly instincts at the thought of the terrible injustices and indignities that surely must have been inflicted on this proud child-race to bring it to this state of revolt. Sweet, indeed,-the thought of the coarse and brutish Government officials being nonplussed, like a fai" puppy when a kitten turns suddenly and spits at it. The old-maidish hearts glow with the fervent hope that these proud and noble savages; battlin'* valiantly against oppression, their eyes glowing with the holy joy of struggle for a just cause, would teach their evil tyrants that they could not with impunity pursue their wicked course of land stealing and super taxation, of brutal handling of sweated labour, of permitting the traders to exploit the poor, .ignorant native while cavilling at the missionaries who were trying to help him, of distributing gin and venereal disease among these dusky innocents, an activity in which they of course delighted —men were like that!

Whereas it need scarcely be stated that whole purpose of the Administration of Samoa is to develop the country in the best interests of the Samoans themselves. That is the whole idea of a mandate. Indeed, there are almost no other interests to consider. The number of independent planters is remarkably small; almost all the bi" plantations are Government-owned and are inland in the bush. The Samoans themselves own their coastal lands as they have always done. The o- r eat of the Samoans will not work, all the labour being done by coolies indented from China, And either the Samoans or the coolies can and do complain about any ill-treatment, witli the result that the planter in question is fined. When, however, a planter complains that his car has been stopped coming through the village of Vaimoso by the Man picket of cheeky natives whq watch by the roadside all niedit he has no redress at all. The traders and there are many rival firms operat•rg ln . Samoa—i sell at standard prices, if anything more cheaply to the Samoan than to the European. There is a standard price for the purchase of native copia, which is the natives’ main source of income. No doubt there are abuses in the system, but such have been known even m enlightened New Zealand, loieover, the Samoan is proof against expiration. In the words olornTd tiader, Every Samoan is a potential millionaire.’ He has all that he needs foi a comfortable and happy cx j ß enco growing i„ the ground and on • trees around him—houses, mats canoes, tobacco, even candles, hair oil ba™n-! g T tte Papers made fr °m dry bananas leaves. He has food in abundance, food that he loves—pigs, chickens bannnn r uit ’ fish ° f a bundr «l kinds’, bananas, sugarcane. P ire he C an make riches oT “° me,lt ®- All the luxuriant nches of an exuberant nature are his He is virtually independent of the trader; mi that he requires from him are sugar soap and a few yards of cloth for his hivalayas. At least he is as keen to buy ‘ ,om the trader as the trader is to buy from mm. And if it is a question of exploitation, the missionaries get as much eeii ',’ f v,;ry IJi011f! ’ unco «uid, socalled Christians as do, the Government and the traders put together; it is said that they even use Samoan money to extend their operation? among less impressionable peoples.

If these Samoans arc so happy, contenteo, mid self-supporting, why bother ihera; Why not leave them to dream the tranquil years away on their halcyon islands.' 1 Why trouble them even with a very nominal taxation of a few shillings per head and with endless regulations concerning such unimportant details as village hygiene, protection of coconut trees their whole wealth—improvement in quality of native copra, and modification of the more barbarous of native customs? They are happy, and happiness is found so seldom that when discovered it should be left undisturbed. Whj- pester them by makjng them search rliinoccrous beetles every Monday, allowing them to play their ancient traditional form of cricket only on two days a week, and putting tiresome restrictions on the old custom of making “ malaga ” (a journey) for the purpose of presenting fine mats (hand-woven mats as fine and soft as linen, the most-prized of possessions)? Let the beetle cat up the coconuts, allow their plantations to become neglected while the village is pleasure-seeking and making frivolous journeys. What do the Samoans want withr hospitals, compulsory medical treatment, and free schools? New Zealand control is irksome to their proud natures; let them govern their own country without this tiresome interference. Their ancestors starved in a happy and proud isolation—what was good enough for their ancestors is good enough for them. What matter though she reck with eye-disease and yaws and all manner of filthy ailments, flamoa will be proudly governing herself like America and France and Russia, and all her other peers among the nations. Oh, yes, by all means let Samoa govern herself! We hear a lot about, the injustices and insults which the proud Samoan has had to suffer. It is with propaganda of this sort that Mr Nelson is exploiting most thoroughly the tender feminine sympathies and motherly instincts of New Zealand spinsters of both sexes. Indeed, to judge by a great deal of the inexcua-

able propaganda which Mr Nelson and his supporters are disseminating in this country, the New Zealand Administration is exercising a medieval tyranny over Samoa, delighting in injustice, and enjoying an orgy of self-interested despotism. Presumably Mr Nelson is referring to the Administration’s rightly or wrongly depriving a few chiefs of their titles of rank. There is a feeling abroad that the Government should make honourable amends, should apologise to the injured parties, and offer to begin afresh. One' helpful American gentleman—president of the Something or Other Consolidated Whatnot Corporation—said in a press interview last year: “ Far from me be it to criticise the present Administration, but if my opinion ns a man accustomed to settle problems is of any value, why not make friends with the chiefs?” Oh, that American business mind! This brings us to a most pronounced trait in the Samoan character, the immense importance tie attaches to codes of respect. Chiefly rank always demands certain forms of respect; there is a whole vocabulary of “ chief words ” which constitute a language of respect. To use common words before a chief is like using blasphemous language in the presence of a parson. The higher the rank of a chief the more involved aud difficult become these forms. The whole Samoan social structure is-wrought from this principle of respect. Conversely their dignity is a very delicate and easily injured organ—hence Mr Nelson’s propaganda. And there, is nothing so ridiculous to a Samoan’s mind as a picture of collapsed dignity. The members of a beaten team in a football or cricket match go home miserable and with bowed heads, they are “ashamed.” If distinguished visitors descend on a Samoan unexpectedly and he has no food to offer them, he ia»docply ashamed —he may even go away and hide until his visitors are gone. If a young' buck is beaten for his girl by a more attractive young buck, he is prostrate with humiliation. A very strong influence mitigating against the possibility of the Mau ever becoming reconciled with the Administration is that, in the event of their again recognising Government authority, they would be put to shame before the few much-dcspiscd loyal villages. This handful of chiefs who have remained loyal throughout the unrest would then lie able to say most gleefully “We told you so” —an indignity which clearly no Mau chief could over tolerate. Tims, if the present Administration were to get off its pedestal—to capitulate, in effect —it would deal such a blow to the respect of the natives for official dignity (however hollow and superficial) that no amount of strict formality and keeping up appearances could ever subsequently restore it. It would be the most efficient and speedy way to end New Zealand’s career in Samoa. For the idea of the prestige of a governing race is really significant; it is more than mere conceit and national selfimportance. Enthusiasts on the colour question who claim that an intelligent, "social, and moral race like the Samoans are entitled to equality of treatment and should be regarded in a spirit of brotherhood—these do but emphasise, by the very ardour of their protest against it, that there does in reality exist an undoubted “colour consciousness.” And the Samoan is more colour conscious even than the white man. If, when you are visiting a falc, you decline the offer of a chair, preferring to sit on the mat in friendly fashion, like one of the family, it is the Samoan who is ill at ease, and overcome with embarrassment. He proffered .you the chair as a mark c/f respect, and it is in terms of formal respect that all relations between Samoan and white riian must be carried on. In any approach to intimate friendship one of two things happens—either it is marked by a pathetic eagerness on the part of the native to. be .well thought of by the somewhat patronising powers that be, the relation between schoolmaster and favourite pupil; or else eventually the Samoan, given an inch, takes

a mile, and becomes cheeky and bumptious. Either way mutual respect suffers.

Granted that at the present time the Samoan neither feels nor shows any respect for administrative authority. Granted that in some measure the'Government deserved to forfeit this respect, and that the Samoan has right on his side—indeed, the recent visit of the three commissioners disclosed a deplorable state of affairs in the civil service of Samba. Granted that the present Administrator realises that there is some justification for the attitude of the natives—even then it is not his policy to eat humble pic. (The virtue of humility is just yot comprehended by these Christians.) No matter how much of this is tacitly understood, when it comes to a question of reconciliation—and the Man must surely soon begin to lose faith in the idolised Mr Nelson’s power to win through in his struggle to oust New Zealand from Samoa—both parties must preserve a passable semblance of dignity, else even the faintest hope of a-mutual understanding is lost. Sir Joseph Ward, it seems, can sav nothing except that there can be no negotiation with the Mau until they again accept Government authority. Clearly he might as well give up hope of negotiation. Granted that some of the shrewd old Mau chiefs perceive that their cause, run on unconstitutional lines as it always has been, has but thin hopes of success. Granted that they now perceive that they went altogether the wrong way to work in advancing it. Granted that all this may be tacitly understood by the present Administrator, yet there may be no overt admissions of such errors. The Administration and the Man alike must save their faces at all costs.

When a time comes when the Mau have realised the lutility of unconstitutional yet perceive that the Administration ;s likely to guard against repeating past mistakes in the future—when, in a word, the occasion is ripe for reconciliation—then it is f or the ingenuity of a to discover sonic common ground on which the two parties can meet without loss of prestige, to contrive some graceful gesture by winch the differences may be adjusted without cither side having to suffer any appearance of indignity or defeat.