Governor Phelps
pp. 60-61 · Read in the full issue
Tributes to His Work in Eastern Samoa
A WRITER in the PIM a fevi months ago commented on the unmarried condition of Colone] Phelps Phelps, and said that the natives of American Samoa probablj would not like a bachelor Governor The comment was not intended tc be offensive —in fact, it was acceptec as gentle humour. Two or thre< old friends of the PIM have taker us seriously to task, however.
“Governor Phelps Phelps is ver; pleasant, kind and courteous t< everyone,” writes a woman residen of Samoa. “He has the welfare o the people at heart, and appears t be a very sincere person . . . Tha article in the March PIM was a lo of twaddle. I don’t think th Samoans care two hoots whether th Governor is a bachelor or not. Any way, his wifeless state does nc prevent him from entertaining often and well.”
Another letter is from a mis sionary who has known Samoa ver well, and who does not mince h: words: — “T WAS disgusted at the cruc 1 attempt to base the low attac on Governor Phelps on a appeal to Samoan custom. Tl references to such customs we: quite inaccurate for one thing; tl conclusions were absurd. Tl Samoans do not demand that ou siders should conform to their ov social usages.
“The Samoan judges the whi man by the standards of Christu morality and dignified behaviour. J say that a man is disqualified b cause he is a bachelor is simp ridiculous. It all depends on tJ man. By an odd coincidence, y< published in the same number laudatory article on an official the Government who has lived he as a bachelor for 25 years.
“People here resent deeply su mean and low attacks on tm Governor. Before he arrived we £ ready knew of the splendid reco of nublic service given by Color Phelps in the State and City of Nj York. His work for the repatriati of Greek children stolen by t Communists will not easily be fc gotten, “Since he has come to Sami Governor Phelps has spared effort to provide for the welfare the people here. He has given m< generously from his personal incoi to support worthy causes.
“In his dealings with our peo* whether of high or low degree, has conducted himself with dign and friendliness and so 1 succeeded in winning the hearts all.
“Nor has his task been an es and pleasant one. The change-c
rom Navy to Interior Department ras bungled rather badly by the Washington bureaucrats and by heir itinerant hangers-on, the rould-be anthropologists who have attened on the Islands since the rar like a swarm of locusts.
ONLY the sympathy and tact of Governor Phelps could have averted a strike in all Govern lent services in Tutuila last July 1, ) great was the dissatisfaction with le new pay-scale.
“The Governor returns this month om Washington where he has »ught hard for funds which are seded to enable the people of merican Samoa to retain some of le amenities to which they have jcome accustomed under the Navy, will certainly not be the fault Governor Phelps if the people of ie United States, through their presentatives in Congress and eir servants in the Department Interior, allow the happy, healthy ople of Samoa to be ill-treated neglected.
“Washington is far from Samoa. iere was need for someone to bang the table and remind the reaucrats that the US assumed jponsibility for these islands over years ago, at the time of the ssion. That responsibility cannot conveniently ignored merely be nse the strategic picture has ered in the Pacific. ‘Governor Phelps was the man
to tell them. Whether or not his mission will be crowned with com plete success we do not know. But we do know that he has spared no effort and we are grateful to him.”
The original article is not re gretted, because it has given us the opportunity of publishing these remarkable tributes to the new Governor of the only American Territory south of the Equator.
A Sydney boatbuilder has re floated the American ketch.
Bachelor’s Wife, which was wrecked on Lord Howe Island in September.
He intends to make it seaworthy and sail it to Sydney. The former owners, Americans Mr. and Mrs. Byron Tanner, sailed her across the Pacific in 1950. They abandoned her when she went on the reef at Lord Howe during a gale.