Prime Minister’S Confirmation

From Our N.Z. Correspondent AUCKLAND, April 5.

A statement that the Labour Party’s policy towards Samoa had not changed since it came into office in New Zealand was made by the Prime Minister, Mr.

Savage, in confirming a report that Mr.

Nelson was to be allowed to return. “It is the intention of the Government to allow Mr. Nelson to return to his home on the island,” he said.

“This is in keeping with the policy of the Government party, because for years we have been fighting against the policy of previous Governments, in respect of the methods practised in the administra tion of Western Samoa. Our aim, as it is our job, is to obtain and maintain the co operation and goodwill of the Samoans.

Without such co-operation it i» impossible to go very far in securing a contented development of the territory.”

Mr. Savage said that the date of Mr.

Nelson’s return to Apia had not been fixed.

Asked in the House whether he did not think it his duty to insist that Mr. Nelson should refrain from any agitation to stir up the Mau to obstruct the Administra tion and the natives supporting it, Mr.

Savage said Mr. Nelson would return to Samoa on the same terms as would govern the return of a New Zealand citizen to the Dominion. The Government would give effect to its election pledge to do justice to the Samoan people.

EDITORIAL NOTE: The N.Z. Government is as vague concerning its Western Samoa policy as it appears to be in most other matters. All governments have tried “to do justice to the Samoan people”; but their methods have ranged over the whole field of futile and inexperienced administration.

Mr. Nelson now has the chance of a lifetime.

He can put his Mau legions into line with a sympathetic government, bring peace and calm to Samoa, and write his name largely on the list of Samoan patriots; or he can again intrigue against authority, introduce Fascist salutes, and so on —in which event he certainly will be again prosecuted by a new government and banished.

The Labour Government in New Zealand clearly is a temporary arrangement of three short years; but it does give to Mr. Nelson, the victim of long years of muddling administration, a chance to rehabilitate himself politically. But if he

carries his personal hates and political feuds back to Samoa with him it will be the end of him.

The action of the N.Z. Labour Government, in thus wiping out a sentence imposed after lengthy proceedings by a properly constituted Court, and confirmed on appeal to a higher court, sets an extremely dangerous precedent. It is extraordinary that the Prime Minister, when making his announcement, did not deal with this aspect of the matter.