Are There “Nationalist” Movements?
In the large colonial dependencies farther west—the Philippines, Indo-China, Burma, and the Netherlands Indies—strong nationalist movements have developed in recent years, looking toward political autonomy. Though the mass of the people tend to be passive in the face of alien control, a vigorous educated minority has been attacking the colonial system. Sentiments of this kind have been stirring in the South Seas, too. In Western Samoa a movement called the Mau (“Opinion”) has raised the cry “Samoa for the Samoans” and especially in 1929 tried to oust the New Zealand government. In American Samoa a similar organization has campaigned to get a civil government in place of naval control, and in Guam a “citizenship” movement has had as its objectives greater self-government and the acquiring of American citizenship. Fiji has had a vocal if small “Young Fijian Party,” and New Caledonia and other places have had similar stirrings. Most observers believe that sentiments of this kind, if right
