Samoa
p. 22 · Read in the full issue
East And West
No Sign That Powers Will Permit Racial Unity
¥I7iHEN the Trusteeship Agreement— TT which replaces the Mandate—was under notice a few months ago, the leaders of the Western Samoa people said that thev not only sought a larger measure of self-government, but they also wished steps to be taken to re-unite Western Samoa (New Zealand Trustee ship) and Eastern Samoa (regarded as an American possession). They asked for a union of all Samoa, to be linked with the British Commonwealth as the King dom of Tonga is linked.
It is now authoritively stated: “No union on these lines is possible, as the United States has now incorporated Eastern Samoa in the same way as Hawaii, and also the Trusteeship Council cannot concern itself with a group which has never been either a mandate or a trust territory.”
Which is just plain poppycock. Eastern Samoa was placed under United States control in 1898. when, as the result of an international wrangle, Germany assumed suzerainty over Western Samoa, and Britain withdrew from Samoa, on condi tion that Germany withdrew her claims from Vavau. Niue and all the Solomon Islands south-east of Bougainville.
Eastern Samoa has remained American ever since, and has been well governed.
Western Samoa had a checkered history under Germany and New Zealand, es pecially during the first 15 years of the Mandate.
Britain, United States, Australia and New Zealand to-day are all professing a very tender regard for the nationalistic aspirations of native peoples. We have seen it, ad nauseum, in Asia, Indonesia, the Middle East, New Guinea, if ever there was an open-and-shut case for nationalism it is here in Samoa, where a people who are essentially one In history, language and habits, are split up under two foreign flags.
But, for no reason that is apparent, neither United States nor New Zealand shows the slightest inclination to remove the dividing line, and make one nation of the Samoans. Instead, they remain stub bornly silent and apparently determined to hang on to all they have with all they’ve got.