MAU ACTIVITIES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 200, 24 July 1937, Page 9

MAU ACTIVITIES

WHITE MAN ASSAULTED

SAMOAN VILLAGE INCIDENTS. RESIDENTS APPREHENSIVE. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) APIA, July 22.

Tho Man police are again active. On Tuesday they prevented Europeans from cycling through the village of Vaimoso, a man who refused to comply with their orders being knocked down and injured, and yesterday, a white woman ivas concerned in an incident which might easily have had serious results.

At 8.30 p.m. on Tuesday Mr W. E. Clarke, department manager of Morris Hedstrom Ltd., when cycling home was stopped at Vaimoso village by the Mau police and ordered to dismount and walk. When he did not comply Mr Clarke was struck a blow on the ear which knocked him down. On recovering in a dazed condition he was again struck in the face, causing his teeth to penetrate the upper lip. He reported the matter to the police at Faumina, and six persons were arrested. To-day they appeared before Chief Judge Morling. One of them, Ueni, pleaded guilty to the assault on Mr Clarke, and was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment. The other five were released. Other cases were those of a man and a woman cyclist who were held up and requested to walk while passing through the village. Tho incidents were.- reported. Rumours that motor-cars and lorries will also be stopped and diverted to another route are prevailing, but so far no cases have been reported. This afternoon when a native procession in connection with the Tamasese mat ceremony turned into Vaea Street seven or eight Samoans armed with axes, knives and shortguns proceeded ahead, compelling all vehicles to halt on the side of the street. Native drivers obeyed, but a white woman, Mrs Braisby, the wife of the inspector of police, who was leaving Morris Hedstrom’s grocery .department, moved to the centre of the road, where she met ; the advance party of the procession, and was called on to stop her car. She did not do so and the Samoans seized the- vehicle. They compelled her to declutch and pushed the car backward. The procession then moved on, while the advance guard remained in a threatening manner lined up on either side of the car. The hood was pierced with a knife in two places. . . ~ After the prpcession passed, the Samoans still surrounded the car, calling to their'chiefs should they do anything to Mrs Braisby. One or two minor chiefs replied “Yes,’ but the chief who was aparently senior to the others replied “No.” This action averted might have been another nasty incident, in Samoan history. European feelings are indicated by the remarks of one resident who said, “We are wondering what will happen next and when the New- Zealand Government will wake up to the true situation in Samoa.”

PREVIOUS DISTURBANCES. MEN-OF-WAR CALLED IN. Encounters between the Mau police and the Europeans in Samoa first became serious in 1927, the year when Messrs Nelson, Smyth and Gurr were deported, and later two British men-of-war called at Apia and made a demonstration. Next, the high chief Tamasese was arrested for thp second time, handcuffed, and went to serve six months in jail at Auckland. Until this time the growing organisation known as the Mau hpd followed a definitely restrained course of development, but after the banishment of its leaders it became rapidly less balanced and rational. “Samoa mo Samoa”—Samoa for the Samoans —became their slogan. They comprised 95 per cent, of the natives. They appointed their own police force, and started a system of picketing to enforce the “sa” or boycott of European goods, and sale of The Mau police intercepted and searched all traffic on the highway outside Apia and prevented Samoans and in some cases Europeans from making purchases at the stores. Mr Smyth’s term of exile expired, and he returned to Samoa at the end of 1929. The Mau determined to make his welc.ome the fullest ever extended to a European in the territory. On the morning of his arrival two processions of natives marched along Apia beach, converging on a point of t]je waterfront near the courthouse where the road' ’branches off 'to Vailima. There were among the natives four high chiefs, Vele, Tamasese, Faumuina and Tuiinalenliifano. They wore white lavalavas and dark coats. The Mau adherents were distinguished by uniform blue lavalavas with a white stripe, tin each side of the columns marched Mau policemen in purple lavalavas, swinging wooden batons. In the procession was a Samoan, Mntau, wanted by the police for evasion of poll-tax. It was stated by the Samoans that Matau had been in Apia unchallenged all the proceding week; at any rate, it was clear that to arrest him during the procession would provoke a riot. This, and the fact that no attempt was made to tako him until the procession came abreast of the police station, has always been construed as proof of a prearranged ambush. Ever since the natives have referred to what followed as the “tongafiti” or stratagem. As the procession neared the courthouse, a party of white police fell in with them, tin passing the Government building, one of these policemen stepped from' the party into the Samoan ranks, and laid band on Match's shoulder. At once the nearest Mau policeman struck him down. The Europeans opened fire with revolvers, at short range. Tamasese, the high chief, standing clear of the main body, threw up both hands, and called, “Stop! Samoans, keep _ the peace.” A rifle bullet struck him in the back, and he fell. As the natives rushed to assist him a burst of mac-hine-gun fire mowed them down. The white police had retreated into the building, but one man, cut off, was killed out of hand by the natives, A boy relative of Tamasese, trying to shield the high chief with liis own body, was riddled with bullets. The police stationed on the police station balcony sprayed the neighbourhood: rows of bullet-lioles were afterward fpiind in‘ buildings, almost at right angles to the original line of fire.

Nino Samoans fell and 18 were wounded. At the subsequent inquest it was found that proper and reasonable precautionary measures had been taken by the police, and that there had been serious active resistance to a lawful arrest, endangering the lives of the police. On the arrival of the cruiser Dunedin the menfolk of the Mau took to the bush.