Lofty, lovely and fertile are the valleys of the Samoa Islands, which
lie in the South Pacific more than halfway from Hawaii to New Zealand,
in the latitude of Australia's northernmost tip. Some of the islands,
including Upolu , were once a
German, have been since the War a New Zealand mandate. The eastern
group—Tutuila, Aunuu, Ofu, Olosega, Tau and Rose—belong to the U. S.
by an Anglo-German treaty of 1900. And in 1925 the U. S. annexed tiny
Swain's Island. Total U. S. Samoa comprises 60 sq. mi., 8,763
population. It is valuable for a rich output of copra, also for
Tutuila's beautiful harbor Pago Pago , good
naval station. The U. S. Samoans, pure Polynesians of the highest type, no heathens,*
since 1900 have been politically suspended in air. The U. S. governs
them through its Navy representative at Pago Pago, now Captain Gatewood
Sanders Lincoln, who proclaims the laws with the approval of a native
parliament. Thus if the inhabitants are citizens of anything it is
the Navy, not the U. S. By Federal law they are established neither as
subjects of, nor as aliens to, the U. S. Long have they wished it were
otherwise. But puzzled Congressmen, unfamiliar with these tiny dots on
maps of the Pacific, have not known what to do about the Samoans'
petitions for a change. Last week, however, a commission of Congressmen headed by Connecticut's
Senator Hiram Bingham, chairman of the Territories & Insular Affairs
Committee, were aboard the 7,05O-ton cruiser Omaha en route from
Honolulu to Pago Pago to consider at first hand the conflicting
petitions and reports which Congress has received. While at Honolulu
they had held sessions, heard much testimony from Samoans and others. Some witnesses advised making Samoa a part of Hawaii Territory, others
violently opposed this. Most witnesses agreed with a letter to the
commission from a committee of Samoan chiefs which declaimed: “Navy
rule must cease!” Student Nelson Samoa Tuiteleleapaga of the
University of Hawaii described how Navy officers permitted sailors to
marry Samoan girls, then to leave them behind on sailing away. Few
agreed with that part of the chief's letter which read: “A million and
a half dollars must be appropriated for the establishment of the Samoan
government. The education of the Samoan people is sufficient to
enable them to handle their own affairs.” Victor Steuart Kaleoaloha Houston, Hawaii's delegate to
Congress, said: “American Samoa cannot be made into a State. It cannot
be made into an incorporated Territory, as it is impractical to apply
many Federal laws there. A special form of government, such as Do
Dominion status, would be necessary.” —Converted chiefly to the Mormon. Methodist. Congregational &
Roman Catholic faiths.
