Dance of Death

Chapter 4. Not planning to fight

At dawn on Saturday, 29 August 1914, His Majesty’s Ship Psyche arrived at the entrance to Apia Harbour.

 The New Zealand-based light cruiser had orders to obtain the surrender of German Sāmoa. A large crowd quickly gathered on Beach Road. Sāmoans, with not-too-distant memories of warships bombarding their villages or exiling their leaders, were cautious. The Germans, meanwhile, hoped it was the first of the German Pacific fleet scheduled to call. With the world at war, the German settlers wanted protection. Psyche launched a cutter, which rowed to Tivoli Wharf, pointing into Apia Bay. Out of it stepped Royal Navy Lieutenant Edward Church. His dress-white naval uniform, complete with jack-boots and cutlass, was already darkening with sweat despite the early hour. Accompanied by several sailors carrying a white truce flag, he bore paperwork for the German administration demanding surrender within half an hour. If there were no surrender, naval guns would shatter Apia— and hundreds of New Zealand soldiers would seize whatever remained of the mostly wooden town strung around the bay. As Church strode down the jetty, the battlecruiser HMAS Australia, two more New Zealand-based cruisers, and a French cruiser maneuvered into position across the bay. Aboard two requisitioned merchant ships, 1,362 New Zealand soldiers sharpened bayonets and stashed ammunition. On the wharf, Church encountered a problem. While his demands were explicit —surrender or face destruction—there was no one to issue them to. The Germans were not at the wharf.

New Zealand troops arriving to annex Samoa. National Library

‘The bearers of the white flag brought a dispatch to the Governor of Sāmoa,’ reported James Ah Su, 38-year-old  printer, publisher and editor of Sāmoanische Zeitung. ‘

After standing passively on the wharf for a few minutes they asked a civilian to go to the authorities and request that the Governor or his representative should come and receive a message in the form of a letter.’

The letter was handed to an Australian traveling salesman named Yarnton, who headed into town to find the right person to deliver it to. Governor Schultz-Ewerth, aware of what was coming, had decided he would not surrender the ‘pearl of the German Empire.’ Instead, he left Apia to meet with a group of matai (chiefs). Several had offered to fight the New Zealanders, but Schultz-Ewerth saw no point. The German armoury consisted of only 50 outdated rifles and a single cannon that took half an hour to load. Finally, Church was handed a letter from a minor German official protesting the threat to bombard Apia. The official stated that they were not planning to fight and that the invaders were now responsible for the life and property of Apia’s European residents.

The New Zealand soldiers began landing on the gentle shores of Matautu Beach, on the east side of Apia Harbour. With no shots fired and the weather ideal for a landing, the invasion was completed well before sunset.

However, New Zealand did not find any gold coins in the German administration office - only a good deal of paper currency.