For Western Samoa?

WHY NOT “B” INSTEAD OF “C” MANDATE

Interesting Suggestion for Settling Thorny Problem.

THE following is a most interesting extract from a letter received by the editor from a gentleman now resident in the middle of Africa —a widely-travelled man who has made a special study of the administrative problems connected with League of Nations Mandates: “The Samoan trouble seems to be never-ending, and I think the one and only solution is that the terms of the mandate be altered. . . .

“I have been at Geneva; and I cer tainly did not get the impression that those sitting around that table had any other interest, beyond drawing their fat salaries. As far as the future of the Mandated Races was concerned, they just didn’t care. It was just one of the after-war farces, and it was difficult to understand why they were and are allowed to carry on.

“What I mean regarding the altera tion of the terms of the Mandate is this: There are three classes of Man dates, A, B, and C. It is hardly possible to rank Samoa under A; but to me— and I have had a life-long connection with native races—it seems nothing short of a tragedy to classify the Samoan in the same category as the

New Guinea boy (C mandate), and that is what their Mandate calls for.

“If proper representations were made to the Governments concerned, and the class of Mandate altered from C to B, then the Samoans would have, as their right, exactly what they are fighting for now, and it would also raise that awful stigma which the Treaty has placed on them, and that is that, ac cording to the ruling of the World Court, they are on no higher level of civilisation than the most backward races of mankind —whereas they have a civilisation almost as long as most of the European countries.

“It is several years since they cele brated their missionary centenary, and even the English people cannot go back much further in religious matters, as freely as they do.

“Of course, as you say, there is a lot of pigheadedness on both sides, and no doubt a little wise talking would have lifted this awful feeling of mis trust. But, in my opinion, the one and only way to settle the argument is to give the Samoan race, by law, the right to eventually govern themselves, and place them on the same footing as their sister country, Tonga.”