Says Mata'afa:
pp. 79-80 · Read in the full issue
‘Aid, and more aid! '
From an Apia correspondent Prime Minister Fiame Mata’afa will probably leave Apia for Japan in June in an effort to seek more foreign aid for independent Western Samoa.
HE said this in April following his re-election as Prime Minister for a third three-year term.
He reiterated the statement which caused some slight panic in some places last year, that if “he cannot get help from the West he will be forced to seek aid from the Com munist bloc”.
“This does not mean we are turn ing Communist. But we must get help from somewhere to maintain our development programme,” he said.
The Prime Minister said the Samoan Government over the next three years would concentrate its main efforts on seeking economic aid and investment, “through which the standard of living of the ordinary people can be improved”.
He said he was not satisfied with the achievements of the first five years of independence.
“Much more was needed than we
Flame Mata'afa
Approaching Bank
were able to do,” he said. “All our efforts have been hampered by lack of finance.”
Western Samoa intends to seek a development loan this year from the newly formed Asian Development Bank, of which she is a member.
Informed local sources say about $1 million will be sought.
Prime Minister Mata’afa added that in the six years of independence he had noticed a marked increase in political awareness among the Samoan people. In this the Prime Minister was supported by Samoa’s retiring Financial Secretary, Dr. P.
P. Heller, who returned to New Zealand in April.
Dr. Heller said before his departure that Samoa faced the future now with more confidence than had been possible six years ago. There was greater appreciation for the need of development and of the efforts being made to increase and diversify pro duction.
SP Games aid?
The question of aid in its various forms was again underlined in April with the arrival of Mr. Gordon Skipper, director of the Volunteers for Service Abroad organisation in New Zealand. He was visiting the 13 New Zealand volunteers who are currently serving in Western Samoa.
He said that like all developing countries Samoa had shown growing appreciation of the effectiveness of volunteers and was asking for more.
“In view of the special relationship between NZ and Western Samoa, the VSA intends to give Samoa all the assistance it possibly can,” he said.
The day that Mr. Skipper flew to Tonga, by coincidence a three man team of officials from the US Peace Corps arrived in Apia to talk about aid prospects with the Samoan Gov ernment.
With an eye on the next South Pacific Games, one request that Samoa intends making to the Peace Corps is for athletics and sports coaches. • The Western Samoan Govern ment recently asked the New Zealand authorities to inform the National Chinese Ambassador in Wellington of the government’s concern over an increasing number of reports of Chinese fishing boats, stationed at Pago Pago, illegally entering places in Savai’i.