SAMOA.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXIX, Issue 3939, 3 July 1918, Page 3

SAMOA.

CLAIMS OF GERMANY.

INTERESTING STATEMENT BY

THE CHIEF JUSTICE,

The following letter from his Honor the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout) appeared in the London "Times of April 17 :—

"It is said that Germany must get back her Pacific island colonies. What colonies ? She never had any colonies in the Pacific. She seized some islands contrary to the wishes of their inhabitants, and she has governed them as atuocrats govern, but she has had no colonies. The number of Germans settled in the. whole of the Pacific islands is negligible. The war, it is said, is to put down autocracy, and it would be a peculiar ending to the war if the Allies handed over the inhabitants of the Pacific islands to the tender mercies of Germany. True democracy must, I assume, recognisa the declaration of Thomas Jefferson., who said : 'Governments are instituted amongst men deriving their just powers from,the consent of the governed, and did not another eminent American Abraham Lincoln, say. 'No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent ? "Let me refer to the islands of Upolu and Savaii, the main islands of the Samoan group. These two islands, j and the small islands adjacent to them, were seized by the Germans during the Boer' war, with the consent of the British Government. I visited Samoa, and I have known many chiefs of the group. Two chiefs came as ambassadors to New Zealand in 1885 ; Malietoa, the" then King of Samoa, petitioned Her Majesty Queen Victoria to annex Samoa to Britain; The New Zealand Government strongly urged, that Her Majesty's Government should yield to the Samoans' request, but, as in other cases' of Pacific islands, it was refused. On my trip through Upolu in 1892 I met no chief but who was anxious that Britain should own their islands. There were then three parties in Upolu—one of which Malietoe was chief; another had Mataaffa. as chief ; and a third Tamasese. There are three religions in Samoa —the London Missionary Society, the Roman Catholic, and the Methodist. Malietoa and his people were members of the London Mission Society's churches, Mataaffa was Roman Catholic, and Tamasese was Methodist. Malietoa had by far the most numerous following. These islands had been civilised by British people. The first missionary was Williams. In every village there was a school, presided over by i a Samoan schoolmaster. There we-e | two high schools in Upolu, one for j boys at Ulumoenga, and another for j girls near Apia. The Germans, how- j ever, through tlie weakness of th^ British Government, were allowed to take possession of Upolu and Savaii. j When the present war broke out the New Zealand forces landed at Apia and took possession, and they are j there now. It would be a cruel thing to allow Germany to again rule the Samoans. It would be contrary to the Samoans' wish ; they do not appiove of German rule. To show how thorough it is, I may mention the following facts: (1) None of the misi sionaries or teachers are allowed to teach English" in Samoa ; one of the Samoans was a student for missionwork, and, as he intended to leave Samoa to go to ■Niue, he desired to learn English, as many of the Niue Natives can speak English. The nv'ssion&ry was not allowed to teach this solitary missionary student the English language—he had to go to Auckland to learn it.

"If the Allies are to carry out democracy and to overturn autocracy it would be impossible to grant the Germans the control of Samoa. The Samoan race is one of tl>e finest Polynesian races. They seem purer Polynesians than any of the other inhabitants I have seen in the other islands, and, surely, the Allies will net allow them to be luled contrary to thei.'

wishes."