Unkind Comparisons At
p. 50 · Read in the full issue
N.Z. And Samoa
Unkind Comparisons At Geneva
We have been told that we are much too critical of the New Zealand Government’s muddle in Western Samoa. Very well.
The following is not our comment : it is from the “New Zealand National Review” of May 15. The article is entitled tc Our Mess in Samoa.”
“LORD Lugard, one of Britain’s greatest authorities on colonial administration, has been saying some very unpleasant things at Geneva about New Zealand’s
administration of the mandate over Western Samoa.
“Mon. Palacois, another member of the Permanent Mandates Commission, suggested (somewhat sarcastically) that it would not be out of place for us to compare Western Samoa under our flag with Eastern Samoa under the American flag, and so derive some idea of the best method of handling a proud, educated and aristocratic race like the Samoans.
“Such a comparison would show us in a very bad light. In American Samoa the natives have the fullest measure of selfgovernment, under a paternal and sympathetic naval supervision. In Western Samoa the Samoans have no voice in the raising of taxes or the innumerable laws imposed on them, and the administration has been harsh and dictatorial.
“For every dollar of taxation the American Samoan pays, the benevolent administration spends another two dollars on its wards. While for every pound our Samoan charges are taxed the bulk of it is wasted on an absurdly overloaded staff of European officials from New Zealand, whose work has been described by Messrs.
P. Verschaffelt and A. D. Park as “in no way creditable to New Zealand.” None of the distinguished soldiers we have sent to administer Samoan affairs has had any experience of civil administration, nor shown any aptitude for handling the polite and amiable Samoans with the rudiments of tact and reason; while the gentleman in charge of the Samoan Bureau in Wellington, which actually directs Samoan affairs, was formerly a clerk in the Labour Department.
“No wonder Lord Lugard criticises the qualifications of these officials for the job, and Mr. Ransom’s ‘answer’ to the British expert is very wide of the mark.”