SAMOAN SITUATION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17146, 31 December 1929, Page 11

SAMOAN SITUATION

CABINET CONSIDERATION NO CHANGE IN POLICY (Per Press Association.) WELLINCTO'N", this day. The situation in Samoa was considered at length at a meeting of Cabinet this morning. In noting the Administrator's assurance that tho present position docs not call for additional assistance, Cabinet decided to advise the Administrator that in case of further Mau aggression any reinforcements that he might require, would bo placed at .his disposal. The Prime Minister further stated that tlu Government was sensible of the duty devolving upon it in ensuring adequate protection to the officials and police engaged in the administration of the Jaw in Western Samoa, and has no intention of deviating from its declared policy in respect of the territory. Law and order would be enforced by whatever means might ho found necessary.

TWO YEARS' BANISHMENT MR. A. G. SMYTIIE'S RETURN The Mr. A. G. Smyth referred to in the Prime Minister's statement yesterday was the subject of one of the three deportation orders made in 1927 banishing from Western 'Samoa those who it was hold, were largely responsible for discontent amongst the natives in the mandated territory. The three deportees wer.) Messrs. 0. F. Nelson, and E. W. Curr, who were ordered to leave 'Western .Samoa for live years, and Mr. A. (.!. Smyth, whose term of period of absence expired on December '&. He spent the greater part of his exile in Suva, and returned lo Apia from Pago Pago on Saturday. The other deportees are both in New Zealand.

Tho deportation orders were, the culminating point of protracted inquiry and discussion as to the causes of native disaffection with the Dominion's administration in the. mandated territory. A Jong statement in justification of the deportation orders was issued by the late Prime Minister, the Right Hon. ,1. 6. Coates, a month after tho orders ,wero made. Declaring that the Government had determined to take a stronger course in governing Western Samoa, he referred to the deplorable effect of the Mau activities on the natives, particularly in the matter of public health, and indicated Messrs. Nelson, Gurr, and Smyth as the source of origin of the trouble, expressing confidence that, left to themselves, the Samoans would gradually, of their own accord, realise the position and co-operate with the Administration as in the past. "It cannot be made too clear," Mr. Coates had said, "that this step is not in any way a punishment for a crime or an offence. If is not in the strict sense of the term a judicial act—if is an executive act, taken not as a penalty, but as a preventive measure to facilitate the good Government of the territory."