A Divided Samoa, But

Who Wants Re-Union?

From Felise Vaa in Apia

As an ethnic group, the Samoans are a divided people. On one hand is Western Samoa, the first independent Polynesian state. On the other, Ameri can Samoa, an unincorporated ter ritory of the United States.

Western Samoa contains about 85 per cent of the total land mass of the Samoan Islands, most of the people (160,000 at the latest census) and most of the fertile, agricultural land.

American Samoa’s 15 per cent of the total land mass has only 30,000 people, and very little agricultural land. Most of the territory is mountainous, rocky land.

The two Samoas have been divided since 1899, when the Treaty of Berlin gave the eastern part of the Samoan Islands (American Samoa) to the United States, and the western part (Western Samoa) to the Germans.

Germany lost Western Samoa during World War I when New Zealand troops seized it and New Zealand then administered the ter ritory first on behalf of the League of Nations and then for the United Nations, until it gained independence in 1962.

American Samoa on the other hand has remained American territory since 1900.

A move to unite the two was made just before Western Samoan indepen dence but nothing came of it. The American Samoan chiefs blamed the new Western Samoa Government for the failure of the talks, and when later the Western Samoans tried to renew them, they were rebuffed.

However, both sides have continued to study the possibility of re-union.

Six years ago, American Samoa’s legislature appointed a Future Status Political Commission to study the best system of government for Ameri can Samoa. The commission travelled widely throughout the South Pacific countries and finally issued a report listing its recommendations. The legislators considered the pros and cons of the recommendations and ended up rejecting most of them.

The only one it accepted was that American Samoa should maintain its status quo, mainly as a result of the uncertainties of the other alternatives, and also because it was satisfied that American Samoa was receiving the best deal it could under the present system.

The American Samoans turned down an Organic Act for the ter ritory, which would have made American Samoa a legal part of the US as well as a proposal for be coming part of the State of Hawaii, because both would have jeopardised the chiefs’ ownership of the land.

Both would have meant that palagis (whites) had the right to buy Samoan land, and to travel to and from the territory without any immigration restrictions.

The proposal for joining with Western Samoa (which, in any case, is largely apathetic to the merger question) was rejected because of the fear that American Samoan chiefs would be demoted in the social hierarchy (the Samoan chiefly system is based on a social hierarchy) and also because of the distinct pos sibility that American Samoa would be under-represented in a representa tive parliament.

Western Samoa, on the other hand, saw no advantages from a merger with American Samoa. From an agricultural viewpoint, American Samoa was insignificant. Western Samoan leaders saw a possible merger with American Samoa more a handi cap than anything else, and this still seems to be the official view. (Naturally, Western Samoan leaders will deny this.) On the evidence thus far, the question of re-uniting the two Samoas remains a remote possibility, though the leaders of both Samoas continue to spread propaganda about uniting and co-operating.

Since independence, the American Samoa Government has tightened up immigration regulations affecting Western Samoans, For instance, West ern Samoans have to be resident in American Samoa for at least five years before they can obtain employ ment. Western Samoans have reci procated by tightening up their im migration regulations concerning American Samoans.

Thus, behind the unity talk, there is actual conflict in many areas.

One thing is sure. The American Samoans are not willing to give up their handouts —and want to con tinue their American connection. The Americans, for their part, seem to be definitely interested in holding on to American Samoa, mainly for security reasons.

They don’t need Western Samoa.