Uno Trusteeship Mission In

Western Samoa

Present Inquiry Does Not Affect American Samoa

THE mission of the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations which is to inquire into conditions in the former Mandated Territory of Western Samoa, assembled in New Zealand in the latter part of June; and departed from Auckland on July 4. in a NZ Air Force Sunderland flying-boat for Suva, Fiji.

The following day, July 5, the party went on in the Sunderland to Apia.

The following are the members of the party:— Francis B. Sayre, (United States), President of the Trusteeship Council.

Pierre Ryckmans (Belgium), a mem ber of the Council.

Dr. Cruz Coke (Chili), a Member of the Council. (Dr. Coke was not on the flying-boat. Instead of going to NZ, he made his way to Samoa by another route, and met the narty in Ania.) Mr. Peter M. Anker, assistant-director of the Trusteeship Division; Mr. J. de la Roche, chief of the visits section of the Trusteeship Council; Mr. C. E. P. Leite, political affairs officer; and Miss M.

Respier all attached to the Mission as members of the secretariat.

Two members of the staff of the NZ Department of External Affairs.

Professor Felix Keesing, a New Zea lander now at Stanford University, Cali fornia, and a well-known writer on South Pacific Administration, has been attached to the mission as an expert consultant. He proceeded, direct to Samoa.

Mr. Sayre had a distinguished career as a former Assistant Secretary of State.

Governor - General of Belgian Congo for 12 years, Dr. Ryckmans has had 32 years of service with the Belgian Colonial Service. He has represented Belgium in many of its overseas Territories, and for a long period was stationed in the for mer Belgian mandate in Africa, Ruana Urandi. He resigned from his country’s colonial service to represent Belgium on the Trusteeship Council.

The mission is concerned solely with the petition for self-government from the chiefs and neople of Samoa; and, as soon as it arrived in Apia, it made preparations for a long series of discussions with all classes, all over the group. The mission will be at least a month in Samoa.

The Western Samoans, in their petition to the council asked that Samoa be granted self-government, that New Zea land act as urotector and advisor in the same capacity as Great Britain did to Tonga, and that “the unnatural division of the islands of the group be left in abeyance until a meeting can be arranged between Eastern and Western Samoa.

The mission has nd authority to in quire into conditions in Eastern or American Samoa. It is solely concerned

with the petition for self-government from peoples of Western Samoa.

This was stated bv Mr. Sayre, during a Press conference in Wellington on July 2.

American Samoa, Mr. Sayre said, was part of American sovereigntyand ag far as he knew, its inhabitants had never asked for any political change.

In its first statement (made on July 7) the mission announced that it would not make any decision —only recommenda tions to the Council —and any change in the administration of the islands would require the concurrence of the New Zea land Government. The New Zealand Prime Minister, however, had assured the mission that his Government would give the greatest weight to its recommenda tions.

A meeting of Europeans and part- Europeans living in Western Samoa adopted a resolution expressing sympathy with the Samoan desire for self-govern ment, but adding that “a transition period of 10 years or possibly longer will be needed.”