DEPORTATION OF CHIEF FROM SAMOA CRITICISED

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18642, 20 December 1928, Page 9

DEPORTATION OF CHIEF FROM SAMOA CRITICISED

MR O. F. NELSON IS INTERVIEWED AT AUCKLAND,

(Special to the “ Star.’’) AUCKLAND, December 20.

“ The deportation of Tamasese from Samoa to Mount Eden gaol as the latest move on the Samoan political chessboard must be as big a surprise to most people in New Zealand, as it is to me,” said Mr O. F. Nelson this morning. “Until responsibility for this action is definitely located and the new Government’s policy in respect to the Samoan trouble is announced, I prefer not to make any comment. “ Tamasese, though a loyal supporter of the Mau from the outset, took no active part until wholesale arrests of the Mau people were made by the New Zealand division of the Navy. He was then, by unanimous request of the Mau, called upon to take up a lead. It must, therefore, be assumed the course he has followed was laid down for him by the Mau, and his actions have been in conformity with the wishes of the Samoan people. Tamasese was one of the first on whom the Administrator applied the full machinery of the Samoan Offenders' Ordinance in 1924. He was banished from his home and deprived of chiefly titles. Great resentment was felt by the Samoans at the time, and this was one of the fundamental causes of the trouble which ultimately led to the formation of the Mau. Tamesese will be the first Samoan to be incarcerated in a New Zealand gaol, as a result of political views, but not the first to be imprisoned for political purposes. If .his policy is to be continued there does not seem to be any doubt

that the New Zealand gaols will soon be overfilled with Samoan political prisoners,” concluded Mr Nelson.