Key Men
p. 36 · Read in the full issue
Chinese Were Cocoa Industries Key Men
From Our Own Correspondent APIA. Sect. 23.
MOST of the Chinese labourers, those who have been repatriated and those who have been allowed to stay behind, were key men on European cocoa planta tions, and the New Zealand Reparation Estates’ cocoa and rubber plantations.
They were in charge of plantation blocks and areas with Samoan labourers working under them. Nearly all of the men had married Samoan women and have large families.
Those who are married and who left on the “Yunnan” will be allowed to return to Samoa at their own expense, if they so desire, but will have to work on planta tions again in Samoa.
European planters have been hard hit by the repatriation and had previously tried their utmost to retain the Chinese.
New Zealand government policy, however, and a portion of the Samoans, insisted on repatriation.
It can hardly be maintained that less than 300 Chinese in a populatipn of 50,000 constituted a serious economic problem.
On the other hand, the progress and prosperity of the cocoa industry is due in no small measure to the Chinese labourers, their good work and their industry.