Gets Worked Up
pp. 59-61 · Read in the full issue
American Samoa Gets Worked Up Over UN Visit Idea
A suggestion that a United Nations mission might visit American Samoa to look into the possibility of greater self-rule for the people of American Samoa was a lively topic in Pago Pago at the end of November.
THE suggestion was made by representatives of Cambodia and Poland at a meeting of the UN Special Committee on Colonialism in New York, at which the administra tion of almost every territory in the South Pacific was discussed. (PIM, Dec., p. 15).
American Samoans first heard about the suggestion when the newly established Samoa Times published a front-page story about it on November 23.
The Samoa Times story resulted in: • An indignant comment by a visiting US Senator that the United Nations had no jurisdiction over American Samoa. • A meeting between Governor H. Rex Lee and the traditional leaders of Tutuila and Manu’a, at which the Governor briefed the chiefs on the present status of the territory’s development programme and clarified “the position of the United States with regard to questions by some United Nations members about American Samoa”.
The chiefs, in turn, told the Governor that they could see no reason why a United Nations mission should visit American Samoa. • Editorials in both the Samoa Times and Samoa News, expressing the view that a UN mission should be allowed to come to American Samoa, as the American Samoans had “nothing to hide”.
The Senator who became so indignant at the suggestion of a UN mission’s visit is Senator Henry M.
Jackson, who was visiting the ter ritory as chairman of the US Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Com mittee.
At a Press conference and meeting with the Governor’s staff, the Senator said that the headline on the
subject in the Samoa Times had “flabbergasted” him.
“This is the United States of America,” he said. “The United Naions has no jurisdiction here.
“The people of Samoa can respond, I think, most effectively to demands heard in the United Nations that Samoa be granted independence.”
Senator Jackson said the goal of the United States in Samoa and the South Pacific was “to lead but not to push”. He hoped to see American Samoa become more self-sufficient as a result of the development pro gramme and he believed the develop ment of tourism could make a major contribution to this goal.
Early next year, he said, the Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee would begin a study of the status and future direction of
Terminal Presentation: Mr. William
Mullahey, of Honolulu (left), a Pan American World Airways executive, pre sented a Hawaiian calabash bowl to Governor H. Rex Lee, of American Samoa (right), at the dedication of the new air port terminal building at Pago Pago Inter national Airport on November 23. Guests at the dedication included United States Senator Henry M. Jackson (upper left), chairman of the Senate Committee on In terior and Insular AfFlairs; Representative Michael J. Kirwin, chairman of the Sub committee on Interior and Insular Affairs of the House Appropriations Committee; Tanumafili Malietoa II (centre rear), Head of State of Western Samoa; and Prince Tungi (right rear), Premier of Tonga.
Photo: US Dept, of the Interior.
programmes involving Samoa, the Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico.
“We will study what our long term policy should be,” he said.
“We hope to be able to draft an organic act which would meet the peculiar requirements of this area.
Caution must be used in approaching this complex problem.
“We must do one thing at a time and act wisely and carefully. I would be against anything that would break down the matai system now, for it is very important for stability during this long period of transition.”
Senator Jackson added: “It is important that we do not do any thing that would create chaos in American Samoa. For this reason, I can see no immediate changes in the traditional system of leadership or in the regulations affecting land ownership.”
Reporting on the meeting between Governor Lee and the traditional leaders of Tutuila and Manu’a, the Samoa News said the Governor told the chiefs that some nations were “clamouring for independence” for American Samoa.
Resolution However, the State Department took the view that the leaders and people of American Samoa expressed their thinking on this subject in a resolution unanimously passed by the Legislature in 1962 which said in essence that “the people of American Samoa are American and do not wish to be independent”.
Samoa News said that the ter ritory’s Senate president, Rapi Sotoa, made a moving response to the Governor in which he said that at the next meeting of the Legislature he would propose that a new re solution be drawn up “to reaffirm our position”. He said the resolution should specifically declare that: • American Samoa is not a colony. • The people of American Samoa have a free government of their own and enjoy the full freedoms other Americans enjoy under the Bill of Rights. • The people of American Samoa have considered the question of in dependence many times, and each time opted to maintain its present political status under American administration and do not wish for a United Nations delegation to visit American Samoa, High Chief Le’iato, who is Secretary of Samoan Affairs, said: “Our forefathers opted to go with the United States, and we intend to keep going that way,”