When trading posts make the mistake of going beyond and interfering with the local system, it inevitably leads to costs exceeding any ephemeral trading profits. In Samoa New Zealand made a muck of it leaving it divided and much weaker. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
This stamp does a good job explaining what attracted so many foreigner to such isolated little islands. Views of a temperate lush tropical paradise. Imagine how welcoming it would have looked to those on a long, scary, dangerous expedition.
Todays stamp is issue A133, a 56 Sene stamp issued by independent Samoa on February 15th, 1984. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations showing off the natural beauty. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 90 cents whether used or unused.
In the second half of the late 19th century Samoa was a united independent kingdom. The USA, Great Britain and Germany had worked out deals with the King for trade concessions in ports they were building. The Germans went a little farther by establishing plantations of rubber, coffee, and cocoa. It is thought the natives were from a tribal group that had originated from ancient Taiwan. In the 1880s a rival chief began rising up against the Samoan Prince. One could see how the Royals falling from power as dangerous to the in effect trade deals and it was easy to portray the rebel chiefs forces as savages given their propensity to behead the corpses of their fallen adversaries. So area warships would often land parties of shipboard marines to fight with the forces of Prince Tanu. It should be remembered how small these landing parties were and they were not as immediately successful as would be imagined. It does not take many beheaded western Marines to decide that the situation was untenable. The British and Americans decided to divide the islands of Samoa with Germany under formal colony status. In a signal of how times were changing Samoan resident and British author Robert Louis Stevenson was on hand to mock the colonial authorities and romanticize the image of the natives.
At the beginning of World War I the trouble started anew. New Zealand landed a military force and displaced the German authorities. When military Governor Robert Logan discovered that the German owned plantations were still trading with German companies he had them seized. Taking them meant that the economy effectively shut down. To make matters worse, A New Zealand ship arrived bringing with it the Spanish flu. 20% of the natives of New Zealand administered Samoa died with Governor Logan blaming the filthy hygiene habits of the natives.
Meanwhile there were no Spanish flu deaths in American Samoa. American Governor John Martin Poyer quickly shut off all connections with the New Zealand part and made the quarantine more palatable by ending the prohibition on natives drinking alcohol. Soon natives on the New Zealand side were petitioning to join American Samoa and New Zealand had trouble with natives for the rest of their time there.
In 1962 only the New Zealand side of Samoa was given independence under the son of the last King. He was now officially Paramount Chief instead of King. The American side is still American and still separate. In 2002 then New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark formally apologized to Samoa for the mistakes of the colonial period. Though too long ago to be personally remembered, one can imagine the natives as one putting their hand out, palm up.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another in memory of the shipboard Marines of the three relevant countries ordered ashore to fight someone else’s war and ended up dead and their bodies desecrated. What a waste. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.