McKay Family Collection ( cropped )
Stünzner Family Collection
The NZ Administrator in Samoa , Mr Alfred Turnbull ( pictured left ), told Wellington on 24 July 1944 that he wanted to defer the return to Samoa of the bulk of the internees . Mac McKay wrote to him putting the case for the men to return straight away . Turnbull telegraphed on 2 August , reversing his position and withdrawing his objection . McKay sweetened the pill for him by undertaking to draw up appropriate terms of parole in Samoa .
Mr McKay also dealt deftly with a problem for one internee who in 1937 had had the misfortune to be praised by Nazi supporter , Dr Walter Hellenthal , after the German Consul had returned to Wellington from his trip to Samoa .
Hellenthal , shown above speaking in Apia in May of that year , wrote a report to the German Embassy in Canberra that the Allies obtained at the start of the war . In this , Hellenthal included a commentary about the political soundness of several people he had met in Samoa . One man he had praised was in New Zealand in 1944 pressing for return to Apia . Mac McKay told the tribunal that Hellenthal ’ s report was “ superficial and unreliable ” and believed that the man should be returned and “ could be relied upon to observe discretion and keep honourably any promises he makes .” McKay ’ s recommendation was agreed to .
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