Letters
A. Samoa: The
Possibilities
The December issue of PIM came on sale here this morning.
May I begin by stating how much I appreciate PIM, having been a faithful reader since coming to Samoa in 1940. Your caption on page 70, states ‘Western Samoa’s Salanoa ...’ although you correctly identify Salanoa as the president of the Senate here in American Samoa in your text.
The Political Study Com mission, of which Salanoa is chairman, has already adver tised public hearings this month (December) on the very subject of possible changes in the status of American Samoa.
Possibilities suggested, among others, were: the status quo, as sociation with the State of Hawaii, status similar to that of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, status similar to that of the Marianas, independence, association with Western Samoa ... Obviously the local authorities believe in free pub lic discussion of the issues.
Should somebody make a speech at the United Nations calling for the liberation of the American Samoans from ‘American colonialism’, or ‘imperialism’ if you prefer that label, I have no doubt that there would be many sup porters for such a motion.
However if you were to consult the people concerned, the US lationals resident here, my )wn feeling is that apart from he question of possible change n status, the vote would be :lose to 100 per cent in favour )f retaining the tie with the US. would go further and suggest hat if you also consulted the nore or less permanent resi ients of Western Samoan or ongan origin, the vote would •e equally enthusiastic in avour of the US relation
hip.
The people of American amoa have liberty and free onl within the US system and
do not want ignorant outsiders to impose their own ideas on them. They have only to look to the difficulties that their Western Samoan relatives now have in respect to entry to New Zealand to convince them selves of the folly of giving up an association which gives them right of entry to the USA. (Would Australia give them equal opportunities?) Furthermore the economic factor is a consideration. For example: last night the local radio and television stations, WVUV and KVZK-TV, held a fund-raising telethon to raise money to organise a sports meeting next March and to send local representatives, to be chosen from the results at that meeting, to the US later in 1979 to a mini-olympic games for handicapped children. The cash received plus pledges in one aftemoon-evening session amounted to approximately $5O 000. I doubt if Western Samoa, with five times the population, could get any where near that amount. May I repeat, as an outsider, I am convinced that the people of American Samoa now enjoy more freedom moral, politi cal and economic than they could get in any other way.
And they are shrewd enough to
appreciate it.
S.J. Bourke
Pago Pago American Samoa
Us Memorial At
Six Mile
The recent comment by one of your readers on the absence of a memorial to the United States servicemen in Papua New Guinea is not quite cor rect (PIM November).
Not far from Port Moresby city in the Six Mile area there used to be a stone cairn with a plaque attached in memory of the United States Fifth Air force erected by the Twenty seventh Depot Repair Squadron.
Unhappily, this memorial was smashed by vandals in the
1960 s and the plaque stolen.
The cairn was inscribed with the words: ‘ln memory of our comrades who gave their lives in the service of our country there is erected at Port Moresby, New Guinea, a
monument in stone. To all who pass it gives testimony of their devotion.’
The concrete base of the cairn was all that remained of this memorial in 1967.
V. T. Sanders
Hohola Papua New Guinea
Manureva
Mix-Up
In your article on the Club Mediterranee (PIM November) I would point out that the Manureva was not a Polynesian catamaran but a trimaran of Western (European) concep tion, built of aluminium and raced by Eric Tabarly in the OSTAR (Observer Trans- Atlantic Race) 1972 under the name of Pen Duick IV.
He came second.
And a note of reassurance: The Club Mediterranee's uranium keel is well past its radioactive days - unless Club Med starts taking people on sightseeing tours to Mururoa.
Yacht Aventura South Pacific
Jimmy Cornell
Let’S Look
Further Back
The newly formed Pacific
Heritage Society, described in
your November 1978 issue, is to be encouraged in its efforts to preserve the architectural heritage of the South Seas.
Unfortunately, the text of your article and particularly the il lustrations chosen perhaps leave the impression that the only architectural treasures worth saving are those build
ings built by Europeans.
Someone must speak up, and speak up soon, for the preser vation of the traditional, pre- European architecture of the Pacific. A visitor might search far and wide in US administered Micronesia and not see a single specimen of traditional architecture, and in New Guinea’s Sepik region the haus tambaran is fast becoming an ‘endangered species’.
I would like to point out, however, that at least one Pa cific people the Gogodala of Papua New Guinea appear to be swimming against the tide of architectural destruction. In August 1974, at Balimo, Prime Minister Somare helped to dedicate the ‘Gogodala Cul
tural Centre’, housed in th< first traditional longhouse bull in the area since the earb 19505.
Originally each Gogodah
village occupied such <
longhouse, some up to 180 m ir length, but by the 1970 s all bu one had been pulled down, vic tims of the twin onslaught ol missionaries and ‘progress’
The thought occurs to me thai
perhaps the Balimo longhouse
could serve as a model for simi lar architectural reconstruction projects elsewhere in the Pa cific.
James A. Baldwin
Instructor in Geography State University Bowling Green Ohio, US
Looking Fora
Swap
I am very interested in collect ing stamps (mint and used) from the Australian dependen cies and Papua New Guinea.
In the past, I have been able to work to earn the money to
spend on this fascinating
hobby without depriving my
family (I have three sons) but, because of arthritis, I have had to give up my job.
I also enjoy letter-writing
and am very keen to learn more about the countries whose stamps I have been collecting.
I would be very happy to corre spond with any of your readers interested in Australia and who would also like to swap their countries’ stamps.
I have lived in both country and city and, together with my husband and children, have
travelled extensively through
out the southern half of Aus tralia, so feel fairly well qualified to supply some in formative details.
(Mrs) Marlene Windsor
6 Anderson Way, Thornlie 6108.
Western Australia.
Solomons
Search
I am anxious to contact rela tives and friends of these people who lived in Solomon Islands pre-World War II: J. S.
Speirs who died in Malaita in 1937, and Dr Lucy Holt- McCrimmon who lived at Su-u, Malaita, in the 1920 s and 19305.
J. A. Bennett
Research School of Pacific Studies Canberra, ACT Australia