Samoa Under the Sailing Gods
VI
VI
On Flag Raising Day, August 29, 1925, the Administrator made the customary speech to the assembled Europeans and natives at Mulinuu: "On this, the third occasion, I am able to meet you with pride and confidence; I am proud of the progress Samoa has made during the past year…."
Interference in the lives of the Samoans had now reached a pitch scarcely to be credited. Continual orders were issued as to a regiment, for the most part useless and irritating; and, committees of women having been instructed to appoint themselves, with authority to poke and pry into household affairs, the enforcement of some of these decrees naturally devolved upon them. It was actually determined how many tea-cups and spoons each family was to have: things of which they had not the slightest need. These committees also were endowed with, or took upon themselves, the power to fine.
There was already evidence of a decided change in the demeanour of the Samoans. Several times I passed parties of strangers on the road, who went by in silence with sullen and averted looks, whereas in former days they almost certainly would have accorded one the national greeting—"My love to you!" On inquiry, I learned in each case that they were a visiting party from Upolu. In my opinion regarding the matter, I was confirmed by a lady belonging to the Education Department of Fiji, revisiting Samoa after an absence of three years, who told me also that she was horrified at the sullen aspect of the children in the schools—as contrasted with her previous experience. This state of affairs may have been the cause of a special "resolution," included in the "Book of Laws," that all young men must salute officials of the Administration, chiefs, and councillors, by raising the right hand: a thing entirely foreign to their custom.