Editorial Note (on the Matua Epidemic Incident)

sently were abandoned, and the natives mixed freely with the ship’s company.

Editorial Note

ONLY the Samoan officials acted in this manner. The port authorities at Suva, Rarotonga and Nukualofa placed no restriction upon the Matua’s passengers.

To get this Apia farce into the correct focus, it should be remembered that no one knows how infantile paralysis is carried —the way in which the germs of the disease are spread is completely a mystery.

The accommodation of 150 cargoworkers from the shore on a ship crowded with New Zealand residents, would be just as likely to transfer the disease from ship to shore, as would the arrival in Apia of Mr. Links who, on his way home from Sydney, spent an hour or so in Auckland streets.

New Zealand has never been forgiven for introducing pneumonic ’flu into Samoa, where tens of thousands of natives were killed. This has made the N.Z. authorities very sensitive on the matter of epidemics; and one can at least understand the fussiness of officials who have never, in any event, been conspicuous for strength of judgment.

The thing which has made such a bad impression is the indifference and callousness of officialdom towards those five residents of Samoa who, through no fault of theirs, suddenly found themselves isolated aboard of the Matua. They were not strangers —they were well-known residents, and their homes and relations and resources were all in or near Apia. In a case like this, officialdom surely should have taken some responsibility for its own people, and advised them what to do and helped them to do it. Instead, it simply barred them out, and left them to shift for themselves.

The most charitable view is that it was