Traub Collection , photographer Alfred Tattersall
Traub Collection
Steady expansion in postal traffic led to the German Administration building a bigger post office in Apia in 1907 ( shown above ). The people in the doorway are Postmaster Johannes Traub in the black jacket , with assistant postmaster , Adolf Mohr , on the left in white jacket and white trousers . Two postmen in the German Imperial postal service are shown at top right .
Mr Mohr ( shown at right at a Concordia Club gathering in July 1909 ), came to Samoa via Australia in 1899 . He was initially an overseer and then a storekeeper for Mr Grevsmuhl , in Savaii , before joining the Postal Department in 1904 . Mr Mohr had a crippled arm which reportedly led to some confusion on the day the New Zealanders invaded Apia in 1914 . Soldiers despatched to the post office pointed their guns at the staff , requesting that they surrender and put their hands up . Mr Mohr stood to attention and held his good arm rigidly upwards . The senior New Zealand officer then commented , “ Is he surrendering or does he want to go to the bathroom ?”
Mr Mohr was not interned during the war and was repatriated on the Main in 1920 with his 16- year-old part-Samoan son , Julius .
Conradt Family Collection , photographer Alfred Tattersall ( cropped )
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