II

In 1919, after the Covenant of the League of Nations had been published, and in anticipation of the issue of the Mandate, proclamations were posted on the Apia Beach by the New Zealand Administration prohibiting the further importation of intoxicating liquor. It was announced that total prohibition would be a fundamental portion of the constitution in the mandated territory.

This step was probably unconstitutional, and its main purpose almost certainly was to placate a powerful teetotal party in New Zealand who about this time came near to imposing Prohibition on their own country. Perhaps also it was intended in the light of a gesture to the League of Nations.

The Europeans of the mandated territory were not consulted in the matter. Only an appearance was made later on of seeking the consent of the Samoans—with regard to imposing Prohibition on the papalangi. And the native councillors, doubtless flattered, and prone by etiquette to answer as desired, were graciously to acquiesce.

For the Samoans themselves there had been Prohibition ever since the days of the Berlin Act of 1889; so although, under the terms of the Mandate, "the supply of intoxicating spirits and beverages" was prohibited to them, the League of Nations in this respect was achieving nothing very new. No mention or suggestion, however, was in the Mandate of Prohibition being extended to Europeans, and this was not done by Australia in the mandated territory of New Guinea, where there was the identical problem of keeping liquor from the natives. Nor, of course, had it been tried in the ordinary page 97Pacific Island possessions administered direct from the Colonial Office in London, such as Fiji, where conditions almost precisely similar obtained.

The machinery of military law, it will be seen, was used in forcing the preliminary of this measure upon the public in Samoa, for they had as yet received no notification that they were not still a German "colony" under military occupation and subject to German laws.

An indignation meeting was held in Apia as a result of a general outcry, and a petition signed by all the principal residents was sent to New Zealand demanding that the Proclamation be rescinded. Except for a short cable message, this was ignored. From now on Samoa was to be the sport of politics, expediency, and cranks in New Zealand, Geneva, and at Home.