Future Of Europeans
pp. 73-74 · Read in the full issue
In Samoa
Letter to the Editor T HAVE been asked by several factions in Samoa to correct some misleading remarks in the long reports which ap peared in your issue of November.
A leading chief of the Malietoa line, Papalii Lafo, voluntarily called on me on New Year’s Eve to ask me to say that there was no political party known as the Malietoa Party; that neither Malie toa Tanumafili nor any of the other chiefs of the Malietoa line has been in sulted by the Mau, of which most of them are loyal adherents. This was de monstrated by Malietoa himself attend ing the memorial service to the late
Tamasese Lealofi and his compatriots who were killed on Black Saturday, seven years ago. The Mau made no protest against Malietoa holding his seat on the Legislative Council, by appointment of the N.Z. Government, without prejudice to the four elected representatives of the Samoans on that Council.
The Chairman of the new Fono of Faipule (Alipia, of Leulumoega) asked me to protest on behalf of the Faipule against references in your paper to the recent session of the Fomo in regard to the remits placed by the Faipule before the Government, all of which according to the Faipule . were in keeping with the assurances of the Goodwill Mission and in no way were they defiant of the authority of the Government.
(Continued Overleaf)
I am also asked to deny the formation of a new National Political Party of the Samoans, and can vouch for the fact that no such Party is in existence.
The Planters’ Association is not a new organisation, but is an old one, started long before the last world war, to protect the interests of the white planters. It has never been a political organisation, though it would be quite within its pro vince to make representations to the Government on behalf of the white plan ters in respect of what they consider are essentials for the cocoa industry, such as Chinese coolie labour, which the Lab our Government has definitely announced its disagreement with in principle.
The Planters’ Association was instru mental in the formation of the new Pro gressive Party of European residents, the main plank in the platform of which seems to be the objection to the repatria tion of Chinese coolie labour from Samoa. Other than the rather uncompro
mising speeches made by its leaders at the inauguration of that Party, there has been no open clash between it and the Samoans or the Samoa-born Labour Party in any way.
It is Incorrect to say that, “Mr. Nelson is in a difficult position . . . He is very perturbed because the new European party refused to meet him and other Mau leaders to discuss the Chinese question;” or that there was any reason to say that “the new party does not intend to make any compromising relationships just at present” or at any other time, so far as I or the Mau are concerned.
Other than the moral principle invol ved by the presence of the Chinese coolies in Samoa, the Mau are not in any way interested in the Chinese at all. The Samoa-born Labour Party would have no interest in the Chinese coolies so soon as they were confined to unskilled plan tation labour, so neither the Samoans in the Mau nor the Samoa-born Labour Party have anything to gain by meeting the white planters. But the latter, ac cording to their own demands, have everything to lose if the Chinese are sent away.
My own position was fully explained in another article, which also appeared in your November issue, and I am sorry that your correspondents’ unduly alarm ing reports should cause you to say that “Western Samoa is in a ferment again;” and the headings, “Insult to Malietoa;”
“Samoans form t a National Party;” “A Hornet’s Nest,” etc.
Whether or not one is in agreement with the whole of the N.Z. Labour Gov ernment’s platform in New Zealand or
Samoa, it seems regrettable that respon sible white residents of Western Samoa should so openly deprecate every effort which nas been made by the new Govern ment and the Samoans to come together again, after so many years of bitter con troversy.
If the interests of the white planters clash so seriously with those of the Sam oans that they cannot be reconciled in some way, the question must soon arise as to which section must go. Surely, not the Samoans, who now and always will comprise over 90 per cent of the popula tion of Western Samoa! Moderate-minded people must believe there is room for both and the question should never arise.
But alarming reports such as appear in your paper from time to time will bring matters to a head sooner or later. May the blame for such fall on the proper quarter!
Apia, Samoa, I am, etc.,
Jan. 22, 1937.