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BRIEFING ON TERRITORIAL AND INSULAR AFFAIRS

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1965

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON TERRITORIAL AND INSULAR AFFAIRS

OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS,

Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:45 a.m., room 1324, Longworth Building, Hon. Leo W. O'Brien (chairman) presiding. Mr. O'BRIEN. The Subcommittee on Territorial and Insular Affairs will be in order.

I would like at this time if I may to yield to the distinguished chairman of the full committee, Mr. Aspinall.

Mr. ASPINALL. Mr. Chairman, we are about to begin another one of our briefing meetings today. The briefing sessions for the subcommittees have been arranged so that we can make it as convenient as possible for those members of the executive department to be present with us and at the same time make it possible for as many members of our committee as possible to be with us.

They are still plagued, of course, with dual committee memberships that bother Congress so much in its operations.

This morning several other committees are having organizational meetings, but I can assure those who speak for the department that the proceedings of this meeting will be read and studied and analyzed by the members of the committee, especially the members of the Subcommittee on Territorial and Insular Affairs.

The chairman of our Subcommittee on Territories is Mr. O'Brien of New York, who is known as the father of statehood for Alaska and Hawaii, as far as that is concerned, so he can take care of this meeting in his own right.

This is one of the important meetings we shall have because, to a great extent, our appearance before the world, at least in many places, is viewed by the way we operate and administer the offshore areas. We have with us this morning all of our Governors and the High Commissioner, and we also have with us the Ambassador of the United States to the United Nations.

I think this should be a very profitable meeting for all of us, and I think any member desiring to ask particular questions about the operations of the territories should feel free to do so within the time limit. we have this morning.

I think this should be a very profitable meeting, Mr. O'Brien, and We should take advantage of every minute of the time allotted to us. Thank you very much.

Mr. O'BRIEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I think, as you very well said, this is an important subcommittee and I think it is also an exciting subcommittee. I think the newer

members will realize from just looking at the list of witnesses, and some of the material we have before us, how far flung our responsibilities are and how many thousands of miles from this room things are happening for which we, to a degree, are responsible.

I would simply like to say this: While the problems are constant in these places and some of them are very serious, I resent from time to time the suggestion we are doing nothing in Washington about these responsibilities.

It so happens that just 10 years ago the distinguished chairman gave me the responsibility of being chairman of this subcommitee. I stayed with this subcommittee because I was interested in it and I think if we look back just over that short period of time, 10 years, in evaluating what we have done in those areas, it has been tremendous, and I think it is a sharp answer to those who accuse us in many other places of colonialism and that sort of thing.

The economic advance in these places has been great and the move toward self-government has been great because for the first time since perhaps colonial days, we do not have a single incorporated territory under the American flag. This committee was largely responsible for that and anyone who referred to the Virgin Islands today as the "poorhouse of the Caribbean" would be out of tune and with the facts.

It was true, not too long ago. I think we have reason for pride, not so much in what we have done but in the caliber of people who have represented us in those farflung places. They have done a marvelous job and have shown supreme loyalty in spite of distance from the American mainland and have shown a pride in their American citizenship.

So, with those thoughts, I will introduce as our first witness a man who has contributed much to what has been accomplished, the Honorable John A. Carver, Under Secretary of the Interior.

I know from my witness list he is to be accompanied by Mrs. Ruth Van Cleve, Director, Office of Territories, Department of the Interior. Then we also have the Governors with them.

I think perhaps we will take them as they come along.

Mr. Secretary, we are very happy to have you here and I know Mrs. Van Cleve contributed mightily to whatever accomplishments we have had in recent years.

Perhaps it would be desirable, Mr. Secretary, if when you finish your statement you called the witnesses and presented them to the committee.

STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN A. CARVER, JR., UNDER SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR; ACCOMPANIED BY MRS. RUTH VAN CLEVE, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF TERRITORIES, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Mr. CARVER. I would be glad to do that, Mr. Chairman.

With your permission, I would like to defer the pleasant task to our Director of Territories, Mrs. Van Cleve.

The work that she has been doing with them is much more closely identified than mine and I would prefer to do it that way unless the chairman would rather have it otherwise.

Mr. O'BRIEN. That is fine

Mr. HALEY. Mr. Chairman?
Mr. O'BRIEN. Mr. Haley.

Mr. HALEY. May I say that I want to welcome the Under Secretary this morning and say that insofar as the Governors are concerned, I think certainly Mrs. Van Cleve is the best looking of all of them. Certainly she has been before this committee many times and she has always done her homework and we found her a very able young lady. I am glad to see you have some control over the rest of these Governors.

That gives us a feeling of confidence.

Mr. O'BRIEN. Amen.

Mr. CARVER. Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, in yesterday's session Secretary Udall indicated that until a successor had been named in the Assistant Secretary position, which I vacated, I will be "wearing two hats." If that is so, the one I am wearing today is the most pleasant one.

I am not here because Director Van Cleve or the Governors or the High Commissioner need any particular Secretarial support. The Director, as Mr. Haley has said, is an old hand in working with this committee and was an experienced and trusted witness long before I joined the Department. Her promotion to the directorship was an earned one and very popular.

As to the Governors, they operate with a good deal of automony. This is particularly true in Guam and the Virgin Islands where Congress has given them American citizenship under the Organic Act of the Virgin Islands which also granted legislative and judicial powers. It is fitting, therefore, that they should report to the Congress rather directly.

One part of the territorial responsibility, not evidenced by a place on the witness list today, is the Virgin Islands Corporation. I am sure you will be interested in it and particularly since the President's budget indicates a rather sharp curtailment of its operations.

In this connection, I recall the satisfaction I felt on the occasion of a dinner with members of this subcommittee 4 years ago when the Department told the Chairman that it was determined to carry out the statutory duty to wind up the affairs of Vicorp within, or in advance of, the statutory period.

Recently, I was in the Virgin Islands to address the constitutional convention. Governor Paiewonsky will tell you more about it but I would like to read a few paragraphs of my statement to that body to this committee today. In one respect, I told them:

You are not completely free agents. Unlike the States, whose sovereign existence and powers are preserved by constitutional formula, the territories are peculiarly creatures of Federal discretion and, in a large sense, you are direct participants in the exercise of a Federal prerogative.

We are both participants in a most interesting experiment, the development of self-government by direct congressional action. This is the real essence of the process you are initiating here this evening. You are proposing to consider the basic elements in the delicate relationship that exists between your political community and, its creator, the Congress of the United States.

Traditionally, changes in the organic powers and governmental structure of the territories have emanated from the source of that power, the Federal legislative and executive institutions. But, I think it is particularly fitting and proper that the moving force for change originated with those most directly affected, the citizens of the territories. Through this device, the Congress can be assured that the proposed changes represent the true desires of the territory. It will be

a signal to the outside world that the principle of self-government is a working force in a truly democratic system.

I also told the convention:

As in all facets of public affairs, the assumption of authority to express political aspirations carries with it a great obligation to protect the broader national interests. As full citizens of the United States, you must assure that the recommendations coming from this convention conform to the document which establishes the ultimate Federal sovereignty, the U.S. Constitution.

More than that, in exercising the democratic prerogative of petition, you must be ever mindful of the image of America as it is seen in other quarters of the world. Every element of my experience with the Virgin Islands generates confidence that it is responsive to that basic obligation.

I read those words which I gave to the convention in St. Thomas last month because I think it is important that this relationship to the Congress be widely understood. It gives me the opportunity, here, to tell you that our interest in an elective governorship for the organized territories is unabated; that we have not yet sent up a bill because we think it appropriate these American citizens be heard from in this constitutional process of petition to the Congress.

The Secretary spoke eloquently yesterday about the territories and I need not repeat the tributes you paid our offshore administrators. Rather, I prefer, here, to say how much we appreciate the mutual responsibility which this committee and our Department shares in the external affairs of the United States.

We think the United States is well served with administrators like our Governors and the High Commissioner, as the chairman has said, not simply as administrators of another Government program authorized by Congress but as stewards of the American concept of freedom in the offshore areas. In this, we are pleased to cooperate closely with our sister Department, the Department of State, and as to the trust. territory matters, with our representative to the Trusteeship Council who will appear before you later today.

We feel fortunate that a veteran of these affairs sits on this committee and that another one, Congressman Yates, is back in the Congress. We listened well, yesterday, as Congressman Carey reminded us of the importance of education and of including the territories in the administration's program for education.

This subcommittee is unique. There are many new members on the committee but new members, like Congressman Bingham and Congressman Foley who have been intimately connected with territorial matters in the past, hardly can be classed as needing education from the Department of Interior.

We look forward to continued cooperation and I know that you will find the staff of the territories always responsive.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to introduce Mrs. Van Cleve and to leave this chair so that she may introduce the Governors in turn.

Mr. O'BRIEN. Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary, for a very fine

statement.

Are there any questions of the Secretary at this time?

Mr. ASPINALL. Mr. Chairman, does the Secretary have to leave the meeting?

Mr. CARVER. No: I was just going to leave this chair.

Mr. ASPINALL. I would suggest, Mr. Chairman, that if the Secretary wants to leave that particular chair, it is all right, but if Mrs. Van

Cleve brings the Governors to the witness table they all remain there and then we can question them en banc so that we will have time to get all of their statements.

Then we will have the Secretary and Mrs. Van Cleve and the Governors all before us.

Mr. O'BRIEN. I think that is an excellent idea because sometimes we become interested in asking questions of the first witness and we never get to the second or third one. I think that is a good idea because so many of the problems, while different, are in the same field. We will proceed in that way.

Mrs. Van Cleve?

Mrs. VAN CLEVE. Mr. Chairman, I thought that if it would serve your pleasure, it might be useful for me to begin with a very brief account of the general dimensions of our territory responsibilities today in the hope of putting in perspective the presentations of the Governors who will follow.

I will try to be brief because the Interior people expect to be before this committee with some frequency during the course of the next 2 years and we do want, therefore, to permit you to benefit from the presence of those who come from a long distance.

It is usual for people who are first confronted with the fact that the Interior Department is responsible for such exterior affairs as the territories and the trust territory to wonder about what appears to be

an error in nomenclature.

I would like to begin by suggesting to you why it is that the Interior Department has found itself in the business of territorial adminis

tration.

To find an answer, we have to go back roughly 100 years when the Congress provided in the early 1870's that the Secretary of Interior would be the Cabinet officer responsible for the administration of the then-incorporated territories and Alaska. We understand that this action was taken in recognition of the fact that territorial administration at that point in history was largely a matter of the administration of public lands.

Interior was then, as it is now, the agency most expert in this field. So, it was sensible to repose matters affecting the territories in the Secretary of the Interior. That statute led, first, to our being responsible for those areas in the Western continental United States which were ultimately erected into States and also Alaska, and then, at the turn of the century, for Hawaii at the time of its annexation. In due course, after some years of administration by the Department of War, the territories of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico were transferred to Interior; and also in the 1930's Interior acquired responsibility for a variety of small islands in the Pacific, ones that concern us very slightly in terms of time and energy and which will, presumably, concern you rather slightly.

I refer to such areas as Canton, Enderbury, Jarvis, and the like. In 1950, Interior's administrative responsibility was vastly increased by the transfer to it from the Department of Navy of the three significant Pacific areas; American Samoa, Guam, and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

We acquired responsibility for Guam in 1950 at the time the Organic Act was enacted, and the other two areas the following year.

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