Elected Governor For

American Samoa

From a Pago Pago correspondent

It is virtually certain that the people of American Samoa will be electing their own governor within a minimum of two years and a maximum of four. This political advancement was pledged by the administration of President Nixon at the time of the appointment of Governor John M.

Haydon over three years ago.

Haydon has said repeatedly that it was his hope that he would be the last appointed governor to serve in American Samoa. In the past both the governor and lieutenant governor have been appointed by the Secretary of the Department of Interior. Peter Coleman, who is now deputy high commissioner of the Trust Territory, is the only Samoan who has held the number one spot.

The most recent development was the appointment by Interior Secretary Rogers C. B. Morton of a guberna torial study commission which began

functioning in September when the territory was visited by the commis sion chairman, Stanley S. Carpenter, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior for Territorial Affairs.

Carpenter was accompanied to Pago Pago by John de Young who served for years in the Trust Territory government and with the South Pacific Commission and who is now territorial officer in the Interior Department in Washington. Also on the commission are Governor Haydon, members of his staff, the leadership of the Legislature and the public representatives, who are the district governors of the territory.

The commission held four ex ploratory meetings during Carpenter’s visit. Carpenter stressed that the changeover will be made in an orderly manner.

Haydon said that the first meetings revealed about 50 fiscal areas in the government where changes and im provements are going to have to be made. He verbally instructed all of his department heads that every decision or policy made in the future months should be made with the consideration of the change in mind.

Appointment of the commission was timed to coincide with Haydon’s appointment of a constitutional revision committee. This committee is formed every five years to study and make necessary revisions to the constitution and subcommittees already are at work. The impending election of the governor is certain to figure in their studies and actions.

Whether the necessary changes can be made early enough to conduct the election in 1974 has not been deter mined. Both Carpenter and Haydon emphasised that the reorganisation of certain governmental functions must be developed completely and in an orderly manner and that the move could be delayed until 1976.

“I have told my staff people that they face the busiest period of their lives in the coming months,” Haydon said. “We are going to push every programme to improve our infra structure and every phase of the government so that the Samoan people have a more efficient operation when they take this important step to self-government.”