A Royal Commission in a Hurry.

When the scope of the Royal Commission was made public, the order of reference was found to be so restrictive that our New Zealand counsel, Sir John Findlay, entered a strong protest, and advised the Citizens' Committee to have nothing to do with it, and I, for one, decided to take his advice. I was immediately assailed by the Prime Minister, Government supporters, and the press as shirking the issue and avoiding the very sort of tribunal we had demanded. In the face of this, and against the advice of our counsel, we decided to appear, and Mr. Smyth and I hurried to Samoa, via Sydney, to arrive there a week after the Commission had opened. I soon discovered that Sir John Findlay, K.C., had been very wise in advising us to have nothing to do with the Commission. Its attitude towards our counsel and witnesses indicated all too clearly in which direction it was leaning, and its report was not difficult to anticipate. Anything against the Citizens' Committee or the Mau was magnified out of all proportion, while evidence against the Administration was viewed through the other end of the telescope. As one example I may quote the fact that the Administrator was the last witness called, and, after cross-examiation, was recalled the next day to answer a series of questions put to him by the Chairman (Sir Chas. Skerrett). General Richardson immediately read his written answers to them, which he brought already prepared. I leave the obvious inference to the reader.

I have already referred to the haste with which the Royal Commission was appointed at the request of the Administrator while I was giving evidence on the petition before the Parliamentary Committee in New Zealand, and the speedy manner in which it was rushed away to Samoa, without giving us time to prepare our case or arrange with New Zealand counsel to. go to Samoa. Mr. Coates refused to extend the scope of the enquiry to include such important subjects as the deportation of British subjects without trial, but in reply to Sir John Findlay's protest against the undue haste which gave us no time to prepare our case, the Prime Minister stated that the Chairman of the Commission, Sir Chas. Skerrett, had agreed to hold over the opening of the proceedings in Samoa to allow us time to prepare our case if such were required.

At the time the Commission left New Zealand I was still consulting with our legal advisors in New Zealand, but on account of the violent insinuations that I was deserting the Samoans and the cause I had hitherto professed to advocate, I hurried to Apia by the quickest route. I found on reaching there that the Commission had opened without delay and that there was general dissatisfaction with the manner in which the enquiry was proceeding during its first week's sittings.