NZ ADMINISTRATION OF WEST SAMOA ATTACKED BY CHICAGO NEWSPAPER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27040, 26 March 1949, Page 7

NZ ADMINISTRATION OF WEST SAMOA ATTACKED BY CHICAGO NEWSPAPER

New Zealand Press Association—Copyright

Rec. 9.50 p.m. NEW YORK, Mar. 24. In an editorial to-day, the Chicago Tribune contrasts conditions in Eastern Samoa, whose people “ voluntarily placed themselves under American rule,” and Western Samoa, “ which New Zealand seized from the Germans.”

The editorial says American Samoa is run for the Samoans. They own the land, pay no income taxes, and most expenses are borne by the United States. Western Samoa, on the other hand, “ presents a fairly typical example of colonial exploitation under the British Empire. “ When they seized the islands the New Zealanders also seized the best agricultural estates which had been held by the Germans. These properties are now operated for the profit of the New Zealand Government on the claim that the seizure represented ‘ reparations ’ for New Zealand’s war costs. The reparations, of course, are actually collected from the Samoans who were innocent bystanders in the war.” The New Zealanders also have a State monopoly of the marketing of copra and dried cocoanut meat that is the principal product of the islands. This is sold only at a half to a third of the prices realised by their kinsmen in American Samoa. Althougn the West Samoans pay taxes, they get less in the way of roads, schools and hospitals than the Eastern Samoans, who receive these largely free from the American Government. “ Western Samoans should be freed from economic slavery. If the United Nations was an honest organisation it would tell the New Zealanders to get out. Unfortunately, the United Nations was formed for the very purpose of protecting such colonial robbery perpetrating.”