US and British gunboats in Āpia harbour

Invincible Strangers 6 - Chapter 2

The United States and Britain had been hostile toward each other since independence in 1776. In the War of 1812 British forces burned the White House down. In 1899 in Sāmoa, London and Washington were to be formally allied for the first time. Soldiers and sailors from one nation came under command of the other. The alliance was aimed at stopping Germany from swallowing Sāmoa. The Anglo-Americans backed Malietoa whose 3000 men were commanded mostly by Tupua Tamasese Lealofi-o-A’ana, who had taken the title in 1891 after the death of Titimaea. They were the ‘Red Tops’ for their red turbans. Mata’afa’s men, five times the size, were ‘rebels’ or White Tops to the English language press.

Gunboats were back in Āpia. The white hulled German Navy’s Falke played neutral against the Royal Navy’s Tauranga and Royalist. Malietoa was sheltering aboard the cruiser Porpoise. Malietoa’s supporters stayed close inside the range of its six inch and three-pounders and machine guns.

Malcolm Ross arrived and travelled on to Sāfotulāfai, power centre of the Fa’asāleleaga district, home to the Malietoa title. He travelled on a kerosene launch captained by a New Zealand mariner resident in Sāmoa, Ernest Allen, who had become a pilot for Sturdee and something of an advisor. They headed to Iva at the southern end of Fa’asāleleaga to meet with a group of ali’i who were loyal to the new Malietoa. They had written to the consuls in Āpia claiming they were in danger from the area’s influential tulafale or talking chief, Lauaki Namulau’ulu Mamoe. His title was, by custom, tied to the Malietoa title, but Lauaki did not approve of the new Malietoa Tanumafili and had aligned himself with Mata’afa and what was called his provisional government at Mulinu’ū. The ali’i claimed Lauaki was threatening to burn Malietoa villages unless they paid taxes and sent soldiers to fight with Mata’afa.