N.Z. Has Unlimited Power in Samoa

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 664, 16 May 1929, Page 7

N.Z. Has Unlimited Power in Samoa

CAN DEPORT EVERYBODY PROFESSOR ALGIE EXPLAINS “Though it seems a paradox the New | Zealand Government has greater pow- ) ers in Samoa than it has in New Zea- | land. If it wished to it could pass any I law at all about Samoa, that was not actually repugnant to all ideas of right i and justice.” So said Professor R. M. Algie during the course of a lecture to members of the New Zealand Society of Accountants on the subject of “Samoa and its Mandate,” in the Pacific Club last evening. The speaker gave a concise and extremely lucid exposition of the legal aspect of the mandate over Samoa held by the Dominion. “In the first place the mandate was j formed as the result of a treaty and was i not intended to be a legal document |in any sense of the word,” said the speaker. “It is probably the most loosely dratted agreement ever drawn up—and that is the reason we have all the present trouble. Why it was so : loosely worded J cannot understand, j \ but it was probably due to ihe fact ! j that the world had just recovered j from a great shock and a more or less i man-to-man agreement was thought lo i be sufficient.” The mandate system was entirely j new to law, said the professor, and was i quite different from the old Roman, 1 mandate system as had been claimed, j nor did it resemble the protectorate 1 system. “The League of Nations is the pvin- j j cipal and the mandatory is the agent,” | ! said Professor Algie. “Just imagine i ! being appointed agent to 42 princi- j pals! That is the position now.” As the Great War was fought as a war of liberation and not of conquest, it ill became any of the Allied Powers to appear to get fresh territories as a j result of it. Therefore the Germans i did not cede their colonial territories to any one Power, but to the newlyformed League of Nations. “Though that is nowhere stated in I documentary form,” the speaker continued, “there is actually nothing to say who is or -who is not the owner. Though the Allies could have annexed these territories, they agreed, on the advice of President Wilson, to take them as mandates instead. When they had arranged it among themselves they passed the scheme over to the League of Nations, which in turn gifted the mandates.”

MANDATE DIRECT TO NEW ZEALAND Mandates to British Dominions were nominally gifted through the King, but in point of fact the mandate was given to the Dominion itself. This was done owing to the fact that under International law the Dominions were not looked upon as being States in the correct sense of the j term. “There were three kinds of maudates. In the first the mandatory offered no more than advice and assistance, but left the mandated country perfectly free, as in the case of Mesopotamia. In the second class the mandatory was given complete powder of administration. “No mention of legislation was made in this class. It is far too loosely worded,” said the speaker. “How can one administer without legislating?” In the second class the mandatory got no monopoly over the mandated territory aud must allow equal trading rights to all countries in the League of Nations. However the difference between such mandates and actual annexation was so fine as to be practically indistinguishable. The third class of mandate was given over heavily populated territories or backward peoples, who showed very little immediate chance of governing themselves. It was very slightly different from the other two, and under this latter heading New Zealand held its mandate over Samoa.

“The question arises whether the terirtory of Samoa is part of the territory of New Zealand? Some say it is, but I say the idea is untenable,” I declared the professor. “In my opinion it is not incorporated. The Samoan people retain their own individual nationality. They are not British subjects by any mandate. They can become so by naturalisation, but at present they are not.” There was no mention of the time the mandate was to last, said Professor Algie. i “If the mandatory fails to carry out his trust, what can be done? Nothing!" said the speaker. “There is no penalty mentioned. The whole thing is very loose. Though legally the mandate is not annexation, it is in point of tact so close as to be so actually. “Who is the sovereign power in the mandated territory? No provision is made in the documents. It cannot be the Council of the League of Nations, because it is not an incorporated body but an association of States. Tt can’t be the Allied Powers because they handed the thing over to the League of Nations. And it certainly can’t be the mandated territory itself!” The position was that New Zealand was actually the sovereign power as far as Samoa was concerned. Mew Zealand could legislate as it wished with Samoa, and could do what it wished as it actually received its powers from the League of Nations itself and was not bound by British constitutional law at all. “We have to report to the League every year,” continued the professor, “but what could be -done if we forget to do so or if they thought our administration was bad? Nothing at all!” In New Zealand the New Zealand Parliament was bound by the Constitution Act, but in Samoa it could legislate free from any limitations.

“As a mater of fact, we don't yet realise what power is vested in us,” said Professor Algie. “The League of Nations can’t take the mandate away, because it did not create it, and therefore can’t take away what it did not create. The mandate was fixed before it was handed over to the League, which simply handed it on to us.” “If New Zealand thought it was the best thing for Samoa it could deport every Samoan,” said the speaker, in reply to a question. “There is nothing to stop it.” At the conclusion of his address Professor Algie was accorded a hearty vote of thanks.