intention to abolish the indentured-labor system in New Guinea. During the discussion of the present report the United States representative noted the trend away from the indenture system as reflected by labor statistics in the report and urged the administering authority to continue with its plans for the complete abolition of this system.

The problem of providing adequate medical and health services in the trust territories is faced by all administering authorities. It is particularly difficult in a primitive undeveloped territory such as New Guinea. Accordingly, the Council noted with particular interest the program undertaken by Australia to recruit medical practitioners for New Guinea from among European displaced persons. The Council was informed that 38 such medical practitioners had been recruited and that by May 31, 1950, 24 of these had already taken up duty in the Territory.

Nauru. The Trust Territory of Nauru, administered by Australia on behalf of New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Australia, is perhaps the smallest territorial unit of international concern. This isolated island in the Pacific has an area of slightly more than 5,000 acres and a total population of 3,269, of which only some 1,500 are indigenous Nauruans. The most significant feature of the economy of this small island is the mining of the rich deposits of phosphate which cover four-fifths of the total land area of the Island.

Since the extraction of phosphate reduces the mined areas to wasteland and since it has been estimated that 70 years of continued mining will exhaust the deposits, the Trusteeship Council has given particular consideration to the economic future of the Territory. The Council recommended that the administering authority undertake a study to develop alternative economic activities.

The British Phosphate Commissioners, a corporation owned by the three Governments, has the sole right to mine the phosphate deposits of the Territory. In addition to payments for the lease of phosphatebearing land, the Commissioners pay royalties on each ton of phosphate mined. These royalties are divided between two funds, one for Nauruan landowners, the other for the entire community, both of which are invested by the administering authority for the future benefit of the inhabitants. While the Council expressed its satisfaction at the decision of the Commissioners to increase these royalty payments beginning July 1, 1950, it pointed out the difficulties of appraising the total economic condition of the island without information showing the separate financial operations of the Phosphate Commissioners and the prices received by them for the phosphate exported.

The administration has on previous occasions acknowledged the rapidity with which Nauruans have developed and the eagerness

which they have shown to adopt in full an alien civilization including its general political framework. In view of this situation and the fact that in the past participation by Nauruans in the administration of the island has been largely limited to an advisory Council of Chiefs elected for a life term, the Council has previously recommended that steps be taken to increase the role of the indigenous population in self-government. Although this recommendation and others were made subsequent to the period covered by the report reviewed, the Council commended the administering authority for the information submitted indicating a sincere attempt to implement previous recommendations. The United States representative called particular attention to the significance of the legislation then in preparation to reconstitute the Council of Chiefs on the basis of a 4-year elective term and widen its responsibilities and powers. He expressed the hope that such legislation would extend legislative powers to the Council of Chiefs, even though such powers might of necessity be limited in scope at first.

Western Samoa. The western islands of the Samoan group (the eastern islands are a territory of the United States) compose the Trust Territory of Western Samoa, administered by New Zealand. Western Samoa became a German possession following the partition of the Samoa Islands between Germany and the United States in 1900. The Islands were placed under the mandate system of the League of Nations in 1919 and under the international trusteeship system in 1946. The Samoans, one of the most numerous and farthest advanced of the Polynesian peoples, have absorbed and accommodated themselves to a century of Western influence to a remarkable degree, particularly in social and economic affairs. Politically, however, the Samoans have had a turbulent history culminating in a civil-disobedience movement against the administration from 1927 to 1936. Subsequently the administration embarked upon a program designed to bring about more effective participation by Samoans in the direction of their affairs. This activity was interrupted during the war, and shortly after the Islands became a Trust Territory the Samoan leaders petitioned the Trusteeship Council for a greater measure of self-government. At the invitation of the New Zealand Government the Council dispatched a visiting mission to the Islands in 1947 under the chairmanship of Ambassador Francis B. Sayre of the United States. The report of this mission included a number of recommendations providing for greater participation by Samoans in the Government of the Territory. Shortly after the mission's visit the New Zealand Parliament enacted the Samoa Amendment Act of 1947, which embodied many of the recommendations of the mission and came into effect during the administrative year 1948-49.

Since the Council had played a significant role in bringing about these reforms, the annual report for the first year of their implementation was of particular interest. Several members of the Council commended the administering authority on the increasing participation of Samoans in the administration through the elected Legislative Assembly and the advisory Council of State. The Council again expressed its desire for further reforms leading to eventual adoption of universal suffrage, recommended that the administering authority increase its efforts to solve the problems raised by the differentiation in status between Samoans and Europeans, and took note of the Commission of Inquiry which had been set up to study local government in Western Samoa.

The favorable financial condition of the Territory has been an outstanding characteristic of the administration in the past and was again noted by the Council. A budgetary surplus reflected the prosperous trade of the Territory, although decreases in the prices of some export commodities indicated that the postwar expansion may have passed its peak. The administering authority was commended for the reestablishment of a Department of Agriculture and the formation of a stabilization fund to protect producers of copra from fluctuations in the world market price of that commodity. The Legislative Assembly of Western Samoa has set up a Select Committee to study the problems of preferential treatment of British imports into the Territory, and the Council stated its interest, in view of article 76 (d) of the Charter, in being informed of the Committee's work.

The administering authority has for some time been conducting an interesting and valuable program utilizing the radio for educational purposes. A transmitter has been installed, and the administration has distributed radio receiving sets throughout the various island villages. Daily educational broadcasts are incorporated in the curriculum of the schools, and news broadcasts are a regular part of the program. The Council has followed this plan with much interest and has remarked upon the commendable progress made in the educational field by the administration.

(b) WEST AFRICAN TRUST TERRITORIES:

BRITISH CAMEROONS, BRITISH TOGOLAND, FRENCH CAMEROONS, FRENCH TOGOLAND

The four West African trust territories lying in the humid tropical region just north of the equator are the homeland of approximately 5,000,000 Africans. At the end of World War I these four

territories-British and French Cameroons and British and French Togoland-were created by dividing the two German colonies of Kamerun and Togo between the British and the French as League of Nations mandates. The political boundaries of the four territories run north from the coast while the ethnic and geographical zones run east and west, a situation which creates many problems, one of which— the Ewe question-has already become a major concern of the Trusteeship Council.

European contact with the Africans of the West Coast, in contrast to most of tropical Africa, dates back several centuries. However, the low-lying, insect-infested coast, so different from the cooler highlands of Tanganyika, has not proved to be a suitable home for permanent settlement by Europeans. The West Africans have achieved the highest development of arts and crafts among the indigenous peoples of tropical Africa. In the coastal towns there is a small but dynamic group of African political leaders, and throughout the area there is a rapidly increasing political consciousness. It is not surprising, therefore, that a great majority of the petitions received by the Trusteeship Council have come from the four trust territories in this

area.

On February 10, 1950, the chairman of the Trusteeship Council's first visiting mission to West Africa transmitted to the SecretaryGeneral a 363-page report in five parts, thus culminating a task which the mission had begun 32 months earlier when its four members, accompanied by six members of the Secretariat, had departed by air from New York. The United States deputy representative on the Trusteeship Council was one of the four members of this visiting mission. In addition to reporting on each of the four trust territories the visiting mission singled out the Ewe problem for a special report. As the Ewe question was one of the outstanding issues confronting the Trusteeship Council in 1950, it is worthy of elaboration. The Ewe Question. The Ewe-speaking peoples, numbering between 800,000 and 1,000,000, live within a 10,000-square-mile area between the Volta and Mono Rivers. In this area are parts of three political units, the Gold Coast, British Togoland, and French Togoland. This situation, when combined with the fact that the remaining parts of these three political units are inhabited by non-Ewes, is the major difficulty in the way of satisfying the demands of the Ewes, who have petitioned the Trusteeship Council for political unification, economic integration, and a common educational system. The strength and genuine character of the Ewe movement is attested by the visiting mission to West Africa, which concluded that it had attained the force and dimensions of a nationalistic movement and

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that a solution of the problem should be sought with urgency in the interest of peace and stability in that part of the world.

Prior to 1950 the Council had already devoted considerable attention to the Ewe question and had granted an oral hearing to the Ewe leader, Sylvanus Olympio, in support of petitions submitted previously by the All-Ewe Conference. During 1950 the Ewe people were granted two further oral hearings, one at the sixth session and one at the seventh session of the Council. When the Council took up the problem at the seventh session, it had received a total of 140 petitions relating to the question of the unification of the Ewe people and of the two Togolands.

As the result of earlier discussions of the problem, the two administering authorities had taken steps to meet Ewe grievances of an economic, fiscal, and cultural character. The Anglo-French Standing Consultative Commission established by the two administering authorities had already held several meetings for this purpose. In further petitions, however, the Ewes had contended that the new arrangements were inadequate because they did not provide for complete unification.

At the seventh session the Council heard not only Mr. Olympio, representing the All-Ewe Conference, but several other representatives of other groups in the two Togolands who presented different views. The evidence thus heard by the Council indicated the political complexity of the issue and reinforced the observations of the visiting mission that, while some of the inhabitants desired the unification of only the Ewe-speaking areas, others sought the unification of the two Togolands, and still others sought the unification of different tribal areas.

The United Kingdom and France, noting that the visiting mission had not felt able to propose any concrete solution in its report, informed the Council that they remained of the opinion that there was no one political solution clearly preferable to the present state of affairs. In order to determine the real wishes and interests of all the peoples of the two Togolands, however, they decided to enlarge the membership and terms of reference of the Standing Consultative Commission, giving it the responsibility of submitting to the two Governments its views as to the practical means of satisfying, within the framework of French and British administration, the wishes of the inhabitants of all parts of the trust territories.

After discussion of this proposal by the Council, the administering authorities altered the terms of reference in order to make it clear that the Commission was not precluded from submitting recommendations for the unification of any part of the two trust territories.