900 Gone, 1,000 Going

Exodus of Jobless American Samoans

THE biggest migration of Samoans —at least in modern times [—happened in July when 921 Ameri can Samoans sailed from Pago Pago for Honolulu. They were carried in the transport President Jackson.

About 350 of them were depend ents of the 100-odd members of the Eastern Samoan, now-disbanded Fita Fita Guard who are now serving with the US Navy in Hawaii. The rest of the passengers were there on their own initiative, at their own expense and had been vouched for by Hawaii citizens—mostly other Samoans now living in the Territory. ■ The Samoans spent almost the whole of the first day in their new jand-of-promise, cooped up on the transport while they were blood tested, X-rayed and examined by immigration officers. Apparently they iad been X-rayed before they left Pago but the films had been left be lind. And many of them had put heir Christian names on the passen ger list and then signed entry papers rith other native names. The result vas a mix-up we usually attribute o the muddling British rather than o the organised Yanks.

Navy dependents will be housed n Navy establishments but the idea >f most of the young men who mi prated under their own steam seems o be to join the US armed forces, n the first few days after the arrival »f the President Jackson an average ►f 75 Samoans per day were crowd ng Honolulu army-air force recruit ng centres.

Since the Navy pulled out of American Samoa in mid-1951 eco lomic conditions in the Territory ave been bad. For almost 50 years le Sanjoans had relied on a Navy conomy and when this prop was uddenly withdrawn it was found lat the small amount of land in the ’erritory could no longer support le much increased population. Many f the Samoans who had served in le Fita Fita Guard and in Navy )bs had been so long away from illage life that it was difficult for lem to adjust themselves to altered editions.

Much of the time and energies of ie first civil Governor of Amer an Samoa, Mr. Phelps Phelps, was iken up with this problem and in ying to get additional grants to de the Territory over the first shock I Navy departure—as reported sveral times in PIM in the last year.

A contributing factor to American

Samoa’s troubles has been lack of communications—there is no regular shipping service between the Territory and other American possessions and there is no plane service. The only regular shipping call is by the Union Company’s Tofua which carries passengers to Apia (Western Samoa), Suva (Fiji) or Auckland where regular plane and shipping services for America can be picked up; and by small inter-island boat from Pago Pago to Apia, Quite unconnected with the President Jackson exodus, an official of the US Territorial Employment Service spent three weeks in American Samoa in July where he registered 1,074 Samoans for possible employ-

ment outside the island group—-in Guam, Hawaii and the US Pacific Coast—when jobs can be found for them and when transportation is available. The official described economic conditions since the Navy pulled out as “very bad.”

He said that of the 1,000-odd Sa moans he had registered for employ ment, if and when, 700 had had agricultural experience, 80 were carpenters, 41 motor mechanics, 20 riggers, 12 electrical repairers, 11 welders, 11 bulldozer and crane oper ators and there were also other skilled men. The Pearl Harbour Navy Yard could use about 100 of the skilled men immediately but the problem was to get them there.