Exaggerated
pp. 23-25 · Read in the full issue
No Chinese Labour
For Samoa
Miscegenation Evil Has Been Exaggerated
By R. W. Robson
“TF the planters of Samoa cannot solve A these problems (i.e., carry on their plantations without indentured labour), they obviously must seek fresh fields and pastures new. ... Importing Asiatic labour means a racial contact having dread social effects, and leading only to Samoan degradation and social misery.” fT'HOSE are pertinent extracts from a A letter by a Mr. George Graham, pub lished in the New Zealand Herald early in August, and having reference to an “interview” by myself, which was pub lished in that newspaper on August 5. I had said, in the plainest terms, that New Zealand had failed to bring about any economic development in Samoa; and that the decision to repatriate all Chinese labour would almost certainly bring about the financial ruin of the Territory.
Mr. Graham’s letter is typical of New Zealand comment on this matter, and of the mawkish, Old Granny sentiment which has distinguished N.Z.’s admini stration of this unhappy country, “If plantation interests cannot be retained except at the grave detriment of the social welfare of the native people,” declares Mr. Graham, “then it were better to allow them to revert to the primitive jungle.”
What priceless twaddle! Do these N.Z.
people not realise that Samoa has been in close contact with European exploita tion and organised commerce for over 50 years, and that a standard of life and a system of government have been estab lished there which are based on the existence of plantations and their profit able operation? A few well-meaning but quite impracticable idealists from N.Z. surely will not be allowed to wipe out the planting industry, simply with a gesture and a pious sigh. If N.Z. will not protect the planting industry in Samoa, and do something to develop that country’s enor mously rich natural resources, N.Z. inevitably will lose Samoa. And, many will say, the sooner the better!
This idea that “a splendid Polynesian race is being poisoned by Chinese coolie blood” is sheer moonshine. I had that idea myself, once, and howled out in print “against the tragedy of Chinese half-castes.” I was challenged at once by a learned body with headquarters in Honolulu, which produced convincing data from all over Polynesia to show that, of all crosses, the Chinese-Poly nesian cross is the best type, physically, mentally and morally. Since then, I have been able to investigate personally this subject, and I must acknowledge that, as a type, there are no better people in the South Seas than the virile, intelligent, attractive Chinese-Polynesians. It is a fascinating subject, because it involves the original ethnological makeup of the Polynesian race, but I may not follow it here. Anyone interested should discuss it with Mr. Rutherford, the very able direc tor of education in Western Samoa, or with the Marist Brothers, who conduct a school for Chinese half-castes in Apia.
The point is that Chinese miscegena tion is no more and probably less harmful
to the Samoans than European mis cegenation. There are now thousands of European-Samoans in Western Samoa,
(Continued on Page 23)
Chinese labourers, brought into Samoa to work on plantations for limited periods, do make irregular, temporary unions with Samoan women, and almost always have children. The children usually are excellent specimens and being absorbed in the mother’s family group, they do well enough and commit no harm.
The women —invariably of low caste —are not regarded as very terrible sinners.
But the system is undesirable, even deplorable, and should have been wiped out long ago. One may go to almost any large plantation, and see Samoan women living with the indentured Chinese. True, no one who knows anything of Islands life is disturbed by the moral considera tions of such an arrangement: so it has been winked at for many years. An effort to abolish the system, some years ago, merely reduced it. It continued; and thus provided Old Granny, in N.Z., with a first-class excuse for wiping out the Chinese indenture From that angle, the planters have only themselves to blame. The only real reason given to date by officialdom for abolishing the Chinese is that “the coolies are debauch ing the native women,”
Actually, the evil is of astonishingly small dimensions. Only a small number of Chinese have these irregular unions with Samoans —perhaps a couple of score.
The women are not really harmed — irregular unions are common among the lower classes. There is eagerness for this association with the Chinese, who are in variably kind and generous. The children, as explained, are of a type by no means undesirable. To suggest that the system is poisoning the Samoan race, or affecting its social structure, is simply ridiculous.
Still, on moral grounds, it is not an arrangement that can be defended.
One week’s work by the authorities, and the promulgation of a definite, clear cut law, would put an end to the system which permits Samoan women to live openly with the Chinese. Despite all laws, there still would be some association between Chinese men and low-class local women—just as there is in Auckland and Sydney. But the open flouting of the European social system would not be permitted. And that, surely, is all that is needed.
Instead, a combination of political hum bugs and well-meaning old women plan to drive the Chinese out of Samoa, and to make no other provision for supplying planters with essential labour. If the planters cannot manage with local labour, they can close up, say the old ladies.
What a travesty on administration!
What a confession of failure by a country holding a mandate to govern a rich tropical territory!