.\ew State Of Samoa

The Men At The Helm Of The .\ew State Of Samoa

On January 1, 1962, Western Samoa, a central South Seas archipelago comprising 1,090 uare miles and 113,000 people, becomes an independent self-governing State.

Of the 16 separately-governed Territories in the South and Central Pacific Islands, Western Samoa is he first to have achieved that status after having passed through a period of colonial rule. Tonga is inde pendent; but Tonga—while under the protection of Britain—was never a colony.

SAMOA’S emer gence into nationhood, under aegis of the United Nations, 1 be celebrated in Western noa in ceremonies beginning in evening of December 31, and ending over five days, fhe country then will settle vn to working out quite a num of matters that have yet to be ided—important matters of ex ial relations such as whether noa will become a member of British Commonwealth; ether she will join the United tions: and many questions of ;rnal security and trade, fhe men upon whom much of i early responsibility will fall the Prime Minister and his finet of eight Ministers. The >tograph of the full Cabinet on ; page was specially posed in Cabinet room for this Inde idence Eve edition of the Pad- Islands Monthly. ieated is Prime Minister Fiame taafa Faumuina Mulinu’u II, E, who was appointed West tioa’s first Prime Minister in ober, 1959, when Cabinet Gov ment was first instituted. The 'islative Assembly again ap □ted him to the post following general elections of last Feb

ruary. The Government is elected for a three-year term. Standing, from left, are; Toomata Tua (Minister of Lands); Tuatagaloa Leutele Te’o (Minister of Education); F. C. F.

Nelson (Minister of Works); G.

F. D. Betham (Minister of Finance); Asiata Lagolago (Minis ter of Agriculture); Tufuga Fatu (Minister of Health); Faalavaau Galu (Minister of Post and Tele graph), and Anapu Solofa (Minis ter of Justice).

West Samoa has come a long way in a short time: • 1780-1820: Archipelago dis-

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Pages

Salutations for a New Nation 21 Samoa Faces Grim Financial Future 29 Services of Judge C. Marsack Lost 33 The Status of the New Samoa 35 Highlights of the Independence Celebrations 36 Two Nobles Are Joint Heads of State 37 Personalities of the New Samoa 39 The Women's Part in Shaping the New Samoa 41 Sixty Years in Samoa 43 And Where are the Russians? 43 The Rise of Samoa (with map) 71

covered by European navigators; charted; named the Navigator Islands. • 1820-1860: Bitter struggles for kingship between branches of the royal family (Malietoa, Tamasese, Mataafa and Tuimale ali’ifano) cause series of native wars. European settlement in creases. • 1860-1900: Periods of poli tical turmoil involving kingship wars and international rivalry among Britain, Germany, United States, all of whom want to colonise. Settlement between the Powers in 1900 gives the greatest part of the Samoa group, Western Samoa, to Germany; Eastern Samoa, including the first-class harbour of Pago Pago, to the US.

Britain withdraws her claims. 9 1900-1919: The period of German rule ended in 1914 when NZ troops occupied West Samoa at the outbreak of World War I.

Samoa became a mandate under the League of Nations, adminis tered by NZ. • 1919-1961: No change in status, except that after World War II the League of Nations Mandate was replaced by the United Nations Trusteeship.

(Continued on p. 136)

(Continued from p. 13) Politically, the period can divided into three. From 1$ until 1936, New Zealand’s Tn teeship over Western Samoa y unimaginative, uninspired and,, many respects, stupid, and Samoi discontent continued until 195 Then the first NZ Labour Gov© ment changed the policies i some of the system; and Sam was quiet during the period I World War II. With the n Trusteeship system, the Samoa in 1947 under High Chief Tan sese appealed to the Unir Nations for self-government, w New Zealand retained as Proc tor and Adviser. Thenceforth, M Zealand slowly prepared Wesfc Samoa for self-government.

Western Samoa’s populationn 113,000 compares with 20,000) American Samoa, but ea country’s population is grow rapidly. There have been o*c sional informal discussions on i possibility of American Sam uniting with the West to form united Samoa, but there aree serious moves because, for thing, the American Samoi won’t contemplate leaving care of the US.