From: jock@soccer.com   
      
   On Mon, 23 Jun 2014 10:08:51 +0000 (UTC), "Adam H. Kerman"   
    wrote:   
      
   >Stephen Sprunk  wrote:   
   >   
   >>If American Samoa wanted to get real representation in Congress, all   
   >>they'd have to do is hold a referendum on statehood.  Puerto Rico does   
   >>so every few years--and it is soundly defeated each time.   
   >   
   >Turns out it's more complicated. They wrote their own constitution, but   
   >Congress never wrote an organic law for them, so it's unorganized territory.   
   >I'm sure this could all be negotiated if American Samoa wants to change   
   >their status, but I agree with you; I've never heard that they do.   
   >   
   >As long as I was looking it up, I learned why American Samoa was never   
   >a Trust Territory despite being a former German colony, a different   
   >status than Trust Territory of the Pacific.   
      
   What is now American Samoa was never part of the German protectorate.   
   The Brits, Americans, and Germans divvied up the islands in the wake   
   of civil war in the late l800's. The Brits gave up any claim on Samoa,   
   in return for control of the Solomon Islands as a protectorate.   
      
   >United States and Germany had   
   >negotiated a treaty with regard to Samoa in 1899, long before WWI. The   
   >Trust Territories were generally successors to Mandates on territory   
   >seized from Germany (and other losing nations) in WWI.   
      
   American Samoa has existed since ratification of the tripartite treaty   
   in 1900.   
      
   --- SoupGate/W32 v1.03   
    * Origin: LiveWire BBS -=*=- UseNet FTN Gateway (1:2320/1)