Treaty and conference photos in public domain per internet
The final act of repatriation was a last minute scramble . Though prior discussion with the German residents had been undertaken by the NZ Administration , the repatriation order with the list of deportees ’ names was not issued by Colonel Tate until the day of deportation . Doubtless there had been many last-minute appeals for clemency which delayed the final list .
Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles , of 1919 ( pictured ), New Zealand was given wide latitude to decide the fine detail of the deportation . The Treaty empowered it to “ make such provisions as it thinks fit with reference to the repatriation … of German nationals .”
The land , buildings and other personal property that the Germans left behind in Samoa was to be valued by the NZ Administration and , under the terms of
Article 297 of the Treaty , compensation was to be paid by the German Government to its own nationals .
It is not clear from this distance in time exactly how the process worked itself out for each departing family . The German currency was devaluing rapidly in the early 1920s and it seems likely that any financial resolution for the deportees was unsatisfactory . Some people from former German colonies who were politically well connected in Germany appear to have received compensation for their lost assets but most ex-Samoa deportees received nothing . They lost everything . The son of one former settler wrote in 1983 that compensation was never paid . “ We were left to fend for ourselves ,” recalled Reinhard ‘ Teddy ’ Suhren , whose parents were planters at Tafaigata .
| To Walk Under Palm Trees - The Germans in Samoa : Snapshots from Albums | Tony Brunt
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