Samoa

None of the Sladden family was involved in Samoa, but reference is made to it in a couple of letters regarding acquaintances who were part of the Samoan Expeditionary Force.

On the outbreak of war in August 1914, Britain asked New Zealand to seize German Samoa as a "great and urgent Imperial service".  On 29th August, 1400 men of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force landed at Apia.  There was no resistance from German officials or the general population and the next day a New Zealand-run British military occupation of German Samoa was proclaimed.  The British flag was raised outside the government building in Apia.

This was New Zealand's first military action in World War I and, after Togoland in Africa, was the second German territory to fall to the Allies.  The Samoa Expeditionary Force remained in Samoa until March 1915, at which time it began returning to New Zealand.  Samoa continued to be administered on behalf of the New Zealand Government until 1920. From 1920 until Samoan independence in 1962, New Zealand governed the islands as the Western Samoa Trust Territory.