SAMOA AND POLITICS

Southland Times, Issue 20448, 28 March 1928, Page 4

SAMOA AND POLITICS

While we agree with Mr Denham that it is stretching too far to suggest that Mr H. Holland was in any way responsible for the distribution of his pamphlet among the Samoans, we do not follow him in hie'wholesale condemnation of the Administration, nor do we swallow as easily as he does the views of the Leader of the Labour Party written before the evidence of the Royal Commission was available. Mr Holland’s pamphlet is Mr Denham’s authority, but if he compares its statements with the report of the Royal Commission he will probably change his opinion of the deportations of the Samoans about which there has been so much written. -In the evidence the majority of the deportations are examined in detail and instead of the Administrator’s actions suggesting the military dictator, booted and spurred, they show an official facing a difficult task with a wealth of patience and a disinclination for drastic action. Our complaint against Mr Holland, and Mr Denham also, is that too much attention is paid to the sound of words, and not enough to the facts. To attempt to fasten on to Mr Holland responsibility for the distribution of this pamphlet among the Samoans may savour of party politics, but we have no hesitation in saying that the Leader of the Opposition has had his eye focussed on the political possibilities and has been unable to see that his statements were making the Government’s task harder. Mr Denham suggests that we have been advocating bloodshed, but if he will read again what this paper has said he will see that our complaint is against, the employment of a show of force. If the law is to be enforced the law must have teeth, and the history of colonial administration shows that firmness in the long run (“firmness” is not synonymous with “tyranny,” any more than a military title is synonymous with dictatorial methods) saves bloodshed and promotes peaceful progress. If Mr Denham will study the evidence given before the Royal Commission he will appreciate the position in Samoa far better than he does now, and he will understand that when he attacks the Administrator as he has done he is in effect inpugning the honesty and the capacity of the distinguished men who constituted the Royal Commission.