Espionage and Wholesale Banishments.

The Mau had no means and no power to intimidate the Natives, even if it wanted to. The Administrator, however, used every means in his power to intimidate them. He issued banishment orders wholesale, and in his many official communiques issued to the Samoans he usually wound up by an order to his Native officials to send him a list of the names of all those who were adherents of the Mau, or who attended meetings, or made contributions to it. One batch of banishment orders, shortly after the Minister left, was issued in one day to about 90 Samoans.

At the first public meeting in October, 1926, I learnt that some of the districts had decided not to pay the Medical Tax then due, and that their chiefs had openly notified the Administrator of this intention. Those districts were miles away from medical attention, and they contended they did not get the value for their money. I urged the Samoans present at that meeting to pay the medical tax and all other taxes due to the Government. A breach of the law was directly opposed to the objects of the Citizens' Committee. I begged the Samoan members of the Committee to support me in this. From then on, the Samoans were clearly told that the Citizens' Committee advised them to "obey all the laws and pay all Government dues."

My fears of an impending crisis were proved to be warranted by the well-founded complaints put in at that first public meeting by the Samoans. and the revelations of the decisions already arrived at by the Samoans to precipitate the crisis by refusing to pay the Medical Tax. New hope dawned on them as the result of the first public meeting, and the tax was paid. When the European members of the Citizens' Committee withdrew by the order of the Minister in June, 1927, the Mau then resorted to passive resistance, and revived their former resolutions not to pay the Government taxes.

The proposed trip to New Zealand to meet the Minister in January, 1927, required funds, so voluntary contributions were asked for. Six Samoans and three Europeans were appointed to make that trip. They were prevented from making the trip by the refusal of passports to the Native members. The petition to the New Zealand Parliament, the telegrams exchanged with the Minister, and legal representation in New Zealand and before the Royal Commission more than absorbed the £1800 collected up to the time I was deported from Samoa. The Samoans passed a resolution that every Matai (head of family) should contribute ten shillings (10s.) and every Taule'ale'a (male adult who had not assumed a family name five shillings (5s.), to meet expenses. I am informed that £3000 has since been collected and there is more to come, if required. I should not be surprised if many active adherents to the Mau have not yet paid anything to the fund. This is the sort of thing which happens page 19 in other places, besides Samoa. The Mau has no power and no inclination to force people to pay.

The statement that the Mau has ordered its people to get away into the bush, rather than meet the Governor, for fear he might sway them, only tends to show how misinformed and misguided the Administrator has been by his Faipules.