Academic Year 1967-1968, Unit 11: Other Island Dependencies and Trusteeships Page: 5
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OTHER ISLAND DEPENDENCIES AND TRUSTEESHIPS
habilitation made fiscal 1965 (the latest year for
which full information is available) a year of
peak business activity that created a record $127
million in gross receipts. Construction projects
added new electric power generation and tapped
new water resources; 14 school and college
buildings and 9 other public buildings were under
construction at the year's end.
These projects were financed by U.S. Govern-
ment grants or loans, but there was much private
construction as well. Many new homes were con-
structed. One large-scale developer alone added
more than a hundred typhoon-resistant, concrete
houses. A 30-room motel was almost completed
and a 29-room hotel begun. (The deluxe Magel-
lan Hotel is now expected to open very soon.)
The territory's program of reconstruction -aims
not only at rebuilding or replacing typhoon-
damaged structures, but also at providing the
island permanent public facilities better than it has
ever before enjoyed.
Guam's beaches and seas, woodlands, and
plateaus have an appealing untouched beauty.
The island's natural position as a crossroads for
Pacific transportation and communication adds to
the tremendous potential for tourism. It is this po-
tential, along with more highly developed agri-
ulture and manufacturing, by which the territory
hopes to expand its private economy This, in
turn, would lessen Guam's dependence upon de-
fense installations that now form the primary un-
derpinning for the economy.
Guam still has far to go in its struggle to ex-
pand its economy, redevelop its agriculture, and
improve the living conditions and opportunities
of its people. But recent improvements are mea-
surable and progress is evident.
AMERICAN SAMOA
SAMOA is a group of 14 volcanic tropical islands
below the equator, some 1,600 miles east and
north of New Zealand, and 2,200 miles south-
west of Hawaii. The six islands of this archipelago
east of longitude 1710 West, together with Swains
Island, constitute Eastern or American Samoa,
and are under the sovereignty of the United
States. The islands west of the meridian make up
Western Samoa, which was governed by New
Zealand under a U.N. agreement until it became
a free country on 1 January 1962.
The total area of American Samoa is only 76
square miles, most of it mountainous. This land
area is about equal to that of the District of
Columbia. The main geographical assets of Amer-
ican Samoa are an excellent harbor at the port
of Pago Pago on Tutuila; the scenic beauty ex-pected of a tropical isle, and a pleasant tropic
calm that is only rarely disrupted by gales or hur-
ricanes. All in all, natural resources are quite
meager. There are enough fruit trees to supply
the natives with oranges, limes, mangoes, and
avocados, but the amount of arable land is ex-
tremely limited. No mineral deposits have been
found. Despite rainfall that approximates 200
inches a year, inadequate storage facilities have
for years made it necessary to limit the use of
water.
Tutuila and Opolu, both in the Samoan archi-
pelago, were among the Pacific islands discovered
in 1722 by the Dutchman Jacob Roggeveen
while he was on an expedition to explore the
eastern Pacific for the West India Company. Be-
fore 40 years had passed, Samoa's central loca-
tion had made it an important trading center of
the Pacific. While German and British vessels
vied for control of the harbor at Pago Pago,
which is one of the finest in the South Seas,
missionaries of different Christian denominations
competed for converts among the islanders. Both
types of rivalry caused friction between different
communities of natives and eliminated the possi-
bility of political unity.
Although a U.S. Navy Lieutenant, Charles
Wilkes, made a survey of the Samoan islands in
1838, American interest in them did not assume
any great importance until after the end of the
U.S. Civil War. In 1872 an agreement concluded
with the Samoan chiefs of the island of Tutuila
gave the United States exclusive rights to the
harbor of Pago Pago. For years afterward, Pago
Pago was a highly strategic coaling station for
the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific. This locale
was to gain considerable fame in the twentieth
century because of being chosen by Somerset
Maugham in 1921 as the setting for his story
Miss Thompson, which was later dramatized in
the play Rain.
While the United States was negotiating with
the chiefs of Tutuila, Great Britain and Germany
were obtaining commercial concessions from dif-
ferent chiefs on other islands of Samoa. The con-
flicting rights and privileges asserted by the three
nations became the subject of misunderstandings
and controversies. In 1899, the three nations re-
solved their differences by a treaty under which
the signatories recognized the claims of the
United States to the islands east of the 171st
meridian. Also recognized were Germany's claims
in the islands west of the meridian.
In 1900 and in 1904, the Samoan chiefs vol-
untarily ceded the islands of Eastern Samoa to
the United States. Until 1951, U.S. Navy5
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Air University (U.S.). Academic Year 1967-1968, Unit 11: Other Island Dependencies and Trusteeships, pamphlet, January 1967; Georgia. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1009962/m1/9/?q=%22~1~1%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting National WASP WWII Museum.