Samoan Report At

Geneva.

Inaccuracies Alleged.

Frcm Our Own Correspondent.

APIA, April 30.

THE report of discussions of Samoan affairs, before the Mandate Com mission of the Leag-ue of Nations at Geneva, has caused considerable com ment in Samoa.

The information supplied to the N.Z. representative at Geneva, and on which he based his statements and replies, appears to have been inaccurate in some particulars.

Sir Thomas Wilford, for instance, submitted to the members of the Man date Commission some photographs which had appeared in “The Auckland Weekly News” of August 12, 1931, show ing, according to Sir Thomas, the “en thusiastic welcome extended to the new Administrator, Brig.-General Hart, by the Mau leaders.” Unfortunately, this description is not true. The welcome was extended to General Hart by cer tain native chiefs, who are mostly in the employ of the Government. The guard of honour was supplied by the Government Agricultural School at Avele. The Mau kept completely aloof and, neither at that time nor since has taken part in official proceedings.

A similarly wrong impression is given by Sir Thomas’s reference to fhe Cen tenary celebrations of the London Mis sionary Society, and the participation of Mau adherents in the celebration. As the majority of the Samoans and, of course, of the Mau members, belong to the Mission, there was no reason for them to keep away from the celebra tion. This did not imply a change in their attitude towards the Administra tion, as Sir Thomas’s statement sug gested.

The participation of some Mau ad herents as assessors on the Land and Title Commission does not possess the significance and importance suggested by the N.Z. representative.

The paragraph relating to a represen tative Fono of the Samoan people should better have been deleted al together from the report to the League of Nations. The attempt of the Admin istration to call this representative Fono after an election by the Samoans, irrespective of their attitude towards the Administration, resulted in failure, owing to the refusal of Mau adherents to take part in such an election. No representative Fono is in existence to day and, apparently, the Administra tion has given up the attempt to have one elected.

Taken altogether, it may be said that the political situation has not improved much in the last few years; that the policy of non-participation in Govern ment affairs and passive resistance on the part of the Mau has not been aban doned; and that at present there seems to be little prospect of such a develop ment.

The Mau, apparently, is marking time till Mr. Nelson returns to Samoa at the end of the present year, after his term of banishment is over.