We are now expanding the program to take care of the youngsters not in school. We hope this program will eventually eliminate the intestinal parasite. As we said before, to eliminate the parasite you have to eliminate the cause through a sanitary condition. We are very hopeful this will be done in very short time. Dental clinics have been expanded. Public health programs have been intensified in the field of home care, prenatal case-mental, health, physical handicaps, nutrition, and other important areas. Health personnel: A vigorous program of recruitment has been The Virgin Islands are in the midst of a period of prosperity unmatched in its own history or in comparable areas. Per capita income: Since 1959 annual per capita income in the islands has almost doubled, rising from $986 per capita to over $1,700 in 1964. Although this is by far the highest in the Caribbean, more remains to be done to raise it to stateside average. Tourism: The tourist trade has undergone a major expansion. In the first full year, fiscal 1962 total tourist expenditures made a $10 million jump from $25.8 to $35.1 million. Since then there has been a further increase of $13 million to an alltime high of almost $48 million in fiscal year 1964. In the same period the number of visitors increased from some 200,000 in fiscal year 1961 to 450,000 during calendar year 1964. Industrial development: About 30 new small plants have been established to create new jobs. They have been established in such fields as watch assembly, textiles, chemicals, and so forth. In addition, Harvey Aluminum began construction of a $40 million alumina plant. It will employ 400 to 600 local employees at good wages when it goes into production next year. Imports have increased: The Virgin Islands has become an important mainland customer. Tourist spending and increased incomes of the Virgin Islands residents have resulted in the Virgin Islands becoming the major or highest per capita customer, or about $1,500 per island resident. The following statistics indicate the extent of economic growth in the Virgin Islands: Imports. Bank deposits. Tourist expenditures. Power output. Value of construction. Income tax collected. Volume of mail (pieces). Calendar Calendar 1963 $23, 622, 093 $71,002,360 51,700,000 41,070, 000 39, 141, 031 13, 000, 000 7,582, 518 12, 779, 000 GOVERNMENT REVENUES A combination of accelerated economic activity and intensive collection efforts have almost doubled locally collected Government revenue from $8 million in fiscal 1961 to $17.1 million in the last fiscal year. Power and water: Ground has been broken for a new power and water facility in St. Thomas. This will provide up to 7,500 kilowatts of electric power and 1 million gallons of desalinated water per day. It is, of course, only the first segment of three important additions planned for the St. Thomas plant through 1971. Simultaneously, we are making rapid progress toward ordering the first segment of an entirely new steam-generating system for St. Croix. Price negotiations continue for purchase of the present power facilities of the Virgin Islands Corporation. Mr. HALEY. I would like to ask the panel's consent that the message by the Governor before the State Legislature of the Virgin Islands, delivered on January 11, 1965, be made a part of the file. Mr. O'BRIEN. Without objection, it is so ordered. Governor PAIEWONSKY. Bonding authority: The bonding authority which was granted by the Congress about a year or so ago will now permit sound financing of capital improvements in education, hospital facilities, and water facilities on a basis comparable to that employed by State and local governments. The first bond issue of $5 million is being prepared for distribution. Meanwhile, interim financing in this amount has been obtained to permit prompt action on urgent projects. THE VIRGIN ISLANDS CORPORATION Sugarcane, that dominated the economy of St. Croix for many years, is being phased out. The industry declined steadily until, by 1900, sugar acreage dropped from 30,000 to 16,000 acres. In 1930, it was 10,000 acres and, in 1960, there were only 4,400 acres in sugar production. The Government lost money in operating the mill each year-about $400,000. Also, alien labor had to be brought into the islands to harvest the crop and work the mills. The Board of Directors voted to sell the mill, and the sugar lands, and stop the loss each year. The management of Vicorp and the local government have been working cooperatively to achieve the transfer of functions and properties of the federally owned Corporation. The sugar lands and sugar mill were sold. Other lands to be sold or transferred to local governments for use as a campus for college, for housing, education, health and welfare programs. Negotations continue for transfer of such facilities as the St. Thomas Airport and other Navy lands managed by Vicorp and for the sale of the power and water facilities to the local government. PROBLEMS 1. Problems related to the 301 section of the Tariff Act of 1930: (a) Woolen textiles: Local government passed a law imposing quotas in the Virgin Islands for processing and shipping to the United States. (b) Watch assembly: Not as yet resolved. Action by Tariff Commission on reduction or retention of import duties will determine what action is necessary for the Virgin Islands to take. 2. $200 tourist allowance: 48-hour provision. 3. Transportation: Airport development to get St. Thomas into the jet age. (a) Hearings before CAB. (b) Application to FAA for matching funds. Mr. ASPINALL. We are going to have you up here again and again. Thank you very much. Mr. O'BRIEN. Thank you, Governor. You have painted a bright picture of accomplishment. Mrs. Van Cleve? Mrs. VAN CLEVE. The fourth area of concern is an area administered by the United States since 1947 pursuant to an agreement with the Security Council of the United Nations. The High Commissioner of the Trust Territory is the Honorable M. W. Goding. Mr. Goding has also been associated with the Interior Department for many years. He is a native Alaskan. In part, for that reason, he was for some time associated with the Office of Territories and with its predecessor agency. He doesn't quite qualify as a native Governor but he was once, at least, a native of a then territory of the United States. Mr. O'BRIEN. Let me first welcome the Commissioner and add that, when the Commissioner concludes, it would be desirable if we heard from Ambassador Tree. We are now entering an area where there is a double jurisdiction, in a sense. I think the two statements would fit together to some extent. We will hear you now, Commissioner. STATEMENT OF HON. M. W. GODING, HIGH COMMISSIONER OF THE TRUST TERRITORY OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS Mr. GODING. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, particularly the new members, I will not take a great deal of time in a geographical description. I think you have a brochure before you which has a map. In brief our area covers a very large section of the Pacific Ocean, the quadrant that is just north of the Equator and west of the international date line. The east-west span is about 2,600 miles and north-south about 1,500 miles. In this very large section of the Pacific Ocean we have the many islands of Micronesia, to use the geographical term. It is an area of small islands. There are about 2,000 if we enumerate all of the small bits and pieces. There are about 100 with permanent population. On the west we are within about 500 miles of the Philippines. On the extreme southwest we are within 300 miles of the nearest islands of Indonesia, and in general we are oriented around the American territory of Guam which in many respects is a base of operations. Our headquarters are in Saipan in the Mariana group. The other two island groups are the Caroline and the Marshall Islands. We had the pleasure and benefit of a group from this subcommittee just a year ago. I am happy to see at least two members who visited us at that time, and I feel it would be appropriate to deal primarily with matters that have developed in the years since the committee had representatives in our area. Perhaps the No. 1 matter of general significance has been political development, the establishment by secretarial order last September of a general legislative body to permit the people of the area to exercise a very large degree of legislative autonomy. The elections for the new legislative body were held on the 19th of January, elections on which I cannot report in detail since we have some rather scattered precincts to be heard from. But the report I do have is that they went in a very orderly manner and we can expect the first congress in Micronesia to assemble in regular session in July of this year. We may have a special organizational session in the late spring. I believe that the attention that was given to the development of the secretarial order on which this new legislature has been based was of a very high order. We had first given a great deal of attention to it in a predecessor agency, the Council of Micronesia, and the desires expressed by that local instrumentality were given every consideration in the final development in the Department of the Interior. There will be a two-house body, a house of delegates with two members from each of six administrative districts, and a house of general assembly based on the population of the districts. That will be a 21-member body. I look forward to the early implementation of a sound legislative program. I have every confidence that the people who will be elected and have been elected will do a creditable job. I know that this committee will continue to have a great deal of interest in the legislative developments in the area. If it is at all possible, we should be pleased to have some committee representation at the time of the first session of the Congress of Micronesia. Political development has been a continuing process in our area. We have had, in addition to this newly created general legislature, district legislatures in each of the six districts, and most of our communities, small islands, and so on, have been organized under municipal charters, some of them of a very simple nature. Leaving the political development area, I know that members here have been most interested in what has been developing in the economic field. Our No. 1 item to report would be the beginning of a commercial fishing industry in the Palau district. An American seafood company built during the period May to August of last year a 1,700ton refrigerator plant as a receiving station for tuna, primarily skipjack tuna. I know Mr. Morton was particularly interested in this when he was there. We are happy to report that the same company has requested a site in the Truk district, with a plan of putting a second base there, and that another major American food packing company is interested in a development in the area. We have in the course of this talked to all of the major seafood packers and we know their interest is very keen. Of It is obvious that the resources of the sea will have to be one of the major elements in any sound economic development in the area. course, we appreciated the fact that this committee last year in reporting on our omnibus bill included a provision which would have permitted the products of our area to come in duty free as part of the American tariff system. Unfortunately we lost that section of the bill when it went to the Senate, but I hope the legislative program to be submitted may include an item that would permit this treatment of the products of the trust territory. With a geographical area like ours, any economic development is so related to transportation that it is hard to unravel it. We have to operate our own shipping service. We have a contract with a private American steamship line to operate two vessels in a general logistics service that involves the shipment of copra from our area to Japan, products back from Japan, and transshipped products picked up at Guam. The shipping operation involves a 9,000-mile voyage on each circuit. We operate now on a 35-day schedule as against about a 90-day schedule of 3 years ago. The addition of a new vessel made it possible to speed up the steamship service. Five other vessels are operated in what we call field service, vessels stationed at various district centers and operating to the outer islands. We have at the present time two new station vessels under construction which we hope will improve that part of our logistics opera tion. I know that those of you who have been in the area and flown over it realize the significance of our air transportation system, and we are pressing for the construction of airports that will make it possible to fly planes with an adequate capacity. We completed one airport 2 years ago. We are hoping that this month will see the first airplane on a new field serving the Palau district and we are now doing preliminary work in engineering and site preparation for another field which, when completed, will give us a greatly expanded air service. We have one DC-4-type aircraft which with its capacity will really loosen the arteries of transportation. We have in addition two amphibious aircraft which have been serious limiting factors in our ability to transport administrative personnel and to accommodate the growing needs of trade and commerce in the air. One very brief and perhaps crude statistic relating to the significance of this economic development is simply the tonnage of imported commodities. This would cover commercial commodities, consumer goods, instruction materials, and many other items. In 1962 the tonnage imported was 26,000 tons for the year. In 1964 fiscal year it has gone over 110,000 tons. In other words, in a little over 2 years we have quadrupled the tonnage of freight, which reflects many aspects of the construction program and a very much increased consumer expenditure. I know that in turning briefly from the economic and transportation to the educational field this committee has been very much interested in our elementary education program. We, very much like Samoa, had a very inadequate elementary system in operation. We did have schools but they were extremely simple. The training of the teachers was very inadequate. The per capita expenditure was as low as $3 to $3.50 per student per year. Our school program, the first phase of the elementary classroom, has involved some 430 classrooms, and I am happy to report that we are in |
