Editorial Note
pp. 39-41 · Read in the full issue
THE foregoing has been published at the request of friends of Mr. and Mrs. Harmon.
The article about the Alsirat, and Mr. and Mrs. Harmon, was written in Pago Pago in March last by a visitor who had access to official files, and it was based on the formal statements made by Mr. Emil Sorenson to the United States administration officials.
Mr. Sorenson formally presented a case against Mr. Harmon, The US Attorney-General in Eastern Samoa, Mr. Gerald Gottlieb, took the case under advisement, but stated he could not proceed with any charges before reviewing the evidence; and that, as Sorenson had many documents, some in Danish, involving Danish law, some in Eng lish, and some in Spanish (relating to occurrences in Central America) there could be no early decision.
Mr. Harmon, who had sold the yacht to Mr. Jennings for $lO,OOO, and received the money, apparently decided not to wait; and he appears to have travelled by a coastal trader to Apia, and thence by air to USA, where he rejoined Mrs. Harmon.
Officially, the charges by Sorenson were left “in the air.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Sorenson had gone on with the Philante II to Apia. He expressed great anger when he returned to Pago Pago, and learned that Mr. Harmon had departed. He said he understood that the American authorities were to have kept him under surveillance.
The latter said, emphatically, that until the evidence (under examina
tion) showed that Mr. Harmon had committed a misdemeanour, they were not responsible for him.
The Philante 11, and Mr. Sorenson, departed from Pago Pago, and the PIM does not know where they are. When we last heard of the
Philante 11, she had been sold, in Noumea.
As fQr marltal status of Mr . and Mrs. Harmon, we have no in formation beyond what has been published. Mr. Sorenson, making his charges in Pago Pago, a few
months ago, insisted that Mrs.
Harmon was his legal (but runaway) wife. But Mrs. Sorenson may have secured a divorce in Central America before proceeding westwards on the Alsirat with Mr. Harmon. We do not know. We do know that vari ous correspondents have expressed respect and goodwill for the couple whom they knew as Mr. and Mrs.
Harmon.
It is a strange story. The history of the yacht, of Mr. and Mrs.
Sorenson, and of Mr. Harmon, and “the rights and wrongs of it all,” appear to be tangled up with the laws of the various countries they made contact with in the course of their wanderings.