Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Samoa Under the Sailing Gods

VII

VII

The salvation of the Samoans lies with themselves; provided they are given some respite from being harried as they are at present. They should insist on the withdrawal of the Chinese from their islands. They derive no benefit from the coolie-worked plantations, which could quite well be handled on contract by Samoan labour. Probably indeed the wisest thing the Samoans could do would be to let the beetle increase and wipe out the greater part of all the coconut-plantations. Mosquito-netting, knives, axes, and a few drugs are the only things they get from Europeans of any real use. If their islands become of no commercial value they will be left severely alone.

According to a recent newspaper report from New Zealand, "since the Mau proclaimed its policy of non-co-operation and non-recognition the Samoan people have been thrown back on their own recourses. The old social and economic system, which had shown signs of falling into desuetude under the exotic and artificial system New Zealand sought to impose, has been restored and now embraces nine out of every ten of the native population. The Matais are again in full authority as heads of their families and clans, and the younger generation which was tending to revolt against the old order of things is again willingly submitting to discipline and authority." This is indeed satisfactory news.

At the commencement of the world-war, Rupert Brooke remarked that there must be a handful of wanderers here and there who, among all the major conflagration and disasters of nations and continents, had felt the tug of the question, "What of Samoa?"

page 284

As long as the Samoans remain Samoans, that handful of wanderers will no doubt be found. They will also be sufficiently interested to try and lend a hand in hour of need. Once Samoa is denationalized—once her beauty fades—her last friend is lost. For love of Samoa is love of beauty, courtesy, mirth, and grace, with something slightly sinister beneath. In short, it resembles the love for a beautiful woman. The Samoans would do well to realize this. So soon as they depart from their old mode of life, their interest and nearly all their good points will be lost. They will stand alone in a harsh and unsympathetic world, and they will deserve their fate. They must cling to their old customs as they value their life.

In doing this they will not in any way be, as they have been stigmatized, "a backward race." They will be in the vanguard of the world's best thought. For it is "back to the sweetness it had destroyed, that ultimately the course of progress must return."

It has been depressing to see published a photograph of the Mau Committee dressed—doubtless in the hope of favourably impressing public opinion in New Zealand—in semi-European clothes. Stage your appeal instead to the world. If only you can preserve yourselves as you are, posterity may appreciate you. If you fail to do so something very fine will have been irretrievably lost. It rests with yourselves. Tagat 'uma lava Samoa silifia lelei.1

page break
The Scene At The Grave

The Scene At The Grave

1 All men in Samoa note well.