Franz Pfeil Collection
In June 1920 , in the wake of the post-war settlements that saw NZ given control of Samoa , Administrator Robert Tate , ordered back to Germany 104 German settlers . Only 11 wished to return voluntarily ; the rest were reluctant to go . Including wives and children , the number of passengers on embarkation day added up to 179 , according to Mr McKay ’ s count ( 190 by other counts ). German settlers who had married Samoans , and a small number who were given special dispensation , were exempted from the repatriation order .
The probability of repatriation had been flagged publicly in December 1919 , after which a few German men moved quickly , and successfully , to get themselves married to local girls .
On 13 June the passenger ship , the s . s . Main , ( pictured ), itself a prize of war that the British had acquired from the Germans , arrived in Apia to take the people away . This photo of the ship in Apia Harbour was taken by Alfred Tattersall .*
For McKay it was an unhappy business . “ I was one of two cashiers receiving from the deportees their loose money and then issuing a uniform allowance of 800 marks each for the voyage – 500 marks in rapidly depreciating paper and 300 in coin . For four days and nights we handled large trays of currency , much of it in gold – marks , dollars and sovereigns . Unhappily , the deportees included many of the most able planters …”
* Note that after the disastrous1889 hurricane all ships anchored in Apia Harbour were instructed to face out to sea to facilitate a rapid departure in case of a severe northerly gale .
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