Samoa
p. 61 · Read in the full issue
New Zealand And
Effect of Recent Election
IT is thought, in some quarters, that the capture of the New Zealand Govern ment by the Labour Party is likely to have an interesting repercussion in Wes tern Samoa.
The position of this Mandated Terri tory certainly received some attention during the election campaign, and Mr.
O. F. Nelson appears to believe that there is now some likelihood that the banish ment imposed upon him last year will be removed. We have not seen anything to suggest that the Labour Party, in its election pledges, undertook to do more than review recent events and decisions in Samoa; and, knowing the ways of politicians, in and out of office, we shall be surprised if the new Government in terferes with the status quo, so far as it affects Mr. Nelson. The prosecution and banishment of Mr. Nelson were the out come of judicial proceedings in an in dependent court, and were not the result of Government action, and most young Governments prefer to leave court deci sions alone.
It is probable, however, that the new Government will appoint an Administra tor to take the place of Sir Herbert Hart, who retired some months ago; and it also is likely that there will be an intelligent attempt to make peace with the still unconciliated and sullen Mau. The elec tion recently of Mr. A. G. Smyth to the Legislative Council of Samoa should help in securing peace in the Territory, for Mr. Smyth’s sympathies have been always
with those Samoans who resisted the militaristic regime which stupid New Zealand politicians fastened upon the Territory.
We have received from Mr. Nelson a copy of a printed pamphlet, wherein he protests strongly against that section of the Annual Report, on Western Samoa which states that after the departure of Mr. Nelson “there was a marked decrease in Mau activities, and a complete change in the political situation. Since that event there has been no trouble or dif ficulty of any kind whatever: the Mau is moribund.’’ Mr. Nelson quotes official documents and dates in support of his contention that this is a grave mis statement of the position, and that his influence was used always to secure peace. He also quotes Police Inspector Braisby, who told the High Court that: “I (Mr. Nelson) had no police record; that I was a man of high integrity, who held the respect of the community in Samoa and elsewhere; that my personal character was excellent; that I had al ways taken a keen interest in public affairs; and since my return from abroad I made the welfare of Samoa and the people of Samoa my life’s work.”
If the new Government has vision and statesmanship, it will find a way of sending Mr. Nelson back among his own people in Samoa, to co-operate with the new Administrator in dealing with the grievances of those clever Polynesian people, and in bringing permanent peace to one of the most attractive territories of the wide Pacific. But, as we said, that is too much to hope for. The new Government, like the old, will be ruled by precedent, red tape and bureaucracy.
The Government of Fiji will take a cen sus of the Colony’s population in 1936.