May Advised that

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 608, 9 March 1929, Page 16

May Advised that

Law Must be Obeyed GOVERNMENT’S POLICY FIRST ESSENTIAL TO PEACE (From Our Resident Reporter) WELLINGTON, To-day. j Government is not only I willing to arrive at a full and just settlement of the difficulties in the mandated territory of Samoa, but is most anxious to do so. As I have alreavy stated publicly, however, we feel it impossible to take any effective steps while those Samoans who belong to the Mau are openly defying the law.”

Thus the Prime Minister, the Rt. I Jon. Sir Joseph Ward, defined the Government's position in regard to Western Samoa in a letter to Auckland acknowledging the receipt of resolutions passed at a recent meeting in connection with the situation in the territory.

All that was necessary for the Mau to obtain u sympathetic hearing and generous consideration of any representations was to abandon their defiance of the law, which no Government can disregard, continued Sir Joseph.

Sir Joseph sard that notwi the conciliatory nature of the communication he had had from Auckland, and the friendly sentiments expressed in it toward himself and the present Government, some of the observations made by the speakers at the meeting, as reported in the Press, were rot likely to have a helpful effect in the territory at the present moment.