Advisers For Old Schemes

The UN In West Samoa: New Advisers For Old Schemes

From Judy Tudor, in Apia

On Saturday, October 24, I stumbled by accident into the grounds of the old Casino Hotel in Apia, Western Samoa, and found the United Nations celebrating its 19th birthday with morning tea. There were more European faces gathered together there in one place than I have seen in Western Samoa for many a year.

THIS fact is causing the usual varied comment in the indepen dent State of Western Samoa, now right on the threshold of its own third birthday. A lot of the com ment is uninformed.

Few Samoan residents seem to know how many UN personnel are now working there. One told me that “there must be 50”; another that “it probably is at least 30”. As far as I could gather, the real figure is about 20. Some of these have wives and this makes the “UN crowd” look bigger than it officially is, although it might be said, of course, that even UN wives have influence.

The big build-up of UN personnel has occurred in the last two years— there were only five there when I was last in Apia in December, 1962.

A sober assessment of the situation is that Western Samoa would un doubtedly have been a great deal worse off without these people and that they have probably done better than the New Zealand officials whom

they replaced, if for no other reason than that they are not bogged down by history.

There is a fundamental, child parent antagonism between Western Samoa and New Zealand which even after three years of independence seems as strong as ever.

The UN pays the salaries of its personnel and to this extent Western Samoa is saving money although it has had to provide homes for some officials expensive on Samoan standards—while others seem to live (like the NZ public servants before them), at the ancient German-built Casino Hotel.

Valid Criticisms One of the more valid criticisms of the UN team is that it brings to the task a set rule of procedures, taking no account of the Samoan temperament, customs or traditional way of doing things.

As international public servants they have an impersonal, uninvolved, some say selfish approach, and a belief that all people can be pushed into the same mould whether they be Kashmiris, Tanganyikans or West New Guineans. Samoans, naturally enough, feel that they are Samoans and therefore different.

Another criticism is that they are all producing the very same plans for development that experts employed by the New Zealand Government pro duced years ago and put in pigeon holes.

What Samoa needs, say the local financial experts, are plans plus the money to carry them out. So far New Zealand is the only outside source of development cash, and that only along specified lines.

The casual observer in Apia today, hearing the beachside gossip and the often scurrilous, usually hilarious and always unprintable stories of people in high Samoan places, might wonder who rules Western Samoa in its third

ear of freedom—the UN inter ational public servants in key ositions, or the Legislative Assembly.

The Assembly, however, pursues s way in true Samoan fashion that [timately is likely to outlast any of le theoretical ideas of even the UN, id sometimes by masterly inactivity actually achieves advantages.

For example, Western Samoa has it yet made up its mind whether wants to belong to the British ommonwealth; it still sits on the nee while enjoying all the trade id diplomatic advantages of being ritish.

A local correspondent is currently iving his knuckles rapped over legedly quoting the Prime Minister it of context as having a preference r joining the UN (which Western imoa couldn’t afford to do, any >w), rather than the Common jalth on the ground that Western moa gets more help from UN. lis probably is what Western moans, if not the PM, think but is not good local form to say so.

The fact is, of course, that hough the UN provides technical dstance, NZ is the country that sighs in with cash and NZ is very ich of the Commonwealth.

Liquor Laws

Again, new liquor laws were held er years ago “until independence” t nothing yet has been done, hough the old points-and-permit dem seems now more honoured in j breach.

The fact is that the Government ikes about £Stg. 100,000 a year out grog sales and this is hard to •ego. Nonetheless, it is believed it although many members of the lislature are heavy drinkers them ves they believe that liquor is horrible, European-introduced nptation and that they would like bring themselves around—some- Y —to banning it altogether.

Western Samoa must soon have own reckoning of its three years freedom. It faces, for one thing, deficit of £600,000 in the current ancial year which is a lot for a all country of 110,000 people. :antime, superficially, the country ms prosperous enough and retail de buoyant—facts that are hard to oncile with falling export income.

Some Samoan residents point to the ney brought in by way of UN sonnel salaries to account for this; ers to the money that is sent to atives by Samoans working in < (Under Samoa’s treaty of friend p with NZ, Samoans have virtual •estricted entry to the Dominion. >ome calculations are that between )0,000-£250,000 NZ currency per mm comes into Samoa this way.

usually in the form of £5 or £lO notes slipped into letters.

In view of NZ’s restrictive currency regulations that make it virtually impossible for its own nationals to get money out of the Dominion, it is a real laugh that currency should be drained out to Samoa (and also to the Cook Islands), in this way.

In the material sense, Apia has changed little in three years and its waterfront, apart from the New Zealand High Commissioner’s office

and additions to Aggie’s Hotel, is still not all that different from the way the Germans left it.

The greatest monument to progress is the reclamation on the harbour side of Matautu Point that will ac commodate the new deep-sea wharf.

The wharf, when it is built, will facilitate loading and unloading, which has always been done with lighters; and the project is financed by a £1 million loan from NZ and £500,000 raised locally.