I" f_jj" Erwln 0. Canham Post Office Box 185. t Plebiscite Commissioner Capitol Hill Rural Branch

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1 " "2' - / OFFICE OF THE PLEBISCITE COMMISSIONER '' / " Marana Islands Dstrct f _"_ Sapan, Marana Islands I" f_jj" Erwln 0. Canham Post Offce Box 185 t Plebscte Commssoner Captol Hll Rural Branch $ /! June 19, 1975 J!'._: The Presdent _ : Unted States of Amerca Washngton, D. C. Dear Mr.. Presdent :! It has been a fascr._,tng and ntense ta_k to serve as your perscnal : representatve n admnsterng the June 17 plebscte n the Northern Marana Islands. I have enjoyed every-mnute. : In your letter to me of Aprl ll you told me I would be "responsble for. assurng that the plebscte s conducted objectvely, mperal ally, and n a manner whch wll guarantee t2._at the people of the Northern Marana I "] (' :"_'_" Of poltcal Thus future Islands themy plebscte poltcal role areprocess. able throuchout to status" butexerc to was. work se tofreely actvely remanther entrely to rght supportneutral to and determne ensure from! Wth the ad of an exceptonally able Executve Drector, N. Neman Craley, Jr., a former membez.f the House of Represer..tatves from the ather free'ssues Pennsylvana, who has had nearly a decade of expezence n Mcronesa, I dd the followng thngs:. Establshed wth all groups n the Northern Maranas my Dtenton to reman neutral; Set up an Advsory Commttee representng the major enttes, for and agans.t the Covenant, n the Maranas; Apponted a Voter Regstraton Board to carry out the dffcult task cf creatng an entrely new regstraton lst; Issued gudelnes for unhampered and equtable use of rado and televson by the campagners; Publshed the essental texts and explanatory m_.teral relatve to the plebscte n Englsh, Chamorro, and Carolnan, wheneve:r possble;

2 (q_ Establshed and enforced regulatons for the actual votng and _Y apponted poll workers and electon judges representng pro- and ant- Covenant groups n equal numbers; Made sure the votes were accurately counted and tabulated, also under the survellance of representatves of both sdes. Our most challengngtask was to produce the entrely new lst of regstered voters. Youwll apprecate tha most such lsts are cumulatve over yea/s. Ours had to be ad hoc. In a few weeks we reg_;tered 5,344 persons, whch compares wth an estmated total of5,880 possble elgble persons. We regstered an addtonal 125 absentee ndvduals. Challenges as permtted by the Secretaral Order were presented to the Voter Regstraton Board and subsequently to the Specal Plebscte Appellate Court, and 90 names were removed from the lst. Thus a total of 5,379 persons were regstered and able to vote, whch s 91.5 percent of possble elgbles. (I nvte comparson _th any votng precncts n the Unted States.) Of these regstere_ persods, 4,999 cast vald ballots ether n person or absentee, whch s 92.9 "! percent. I am sure you wll agree that these are remarkable percentages, provng the ntense nterest of the Maranas people n the hstorc ssue to be decded and the effcacy of the processes of regstratcn, campagnng, and votng. Fnally, as of ccurse you know, 3,939 persons voted n favor of the _ Covenant of Commonwealth, or 78.8 percent, and 1,060 voted aganst. results evdence the ardor of the Northern Maranas people n ther desre for poltcal unon wth the Unted States. The I beleve a perfectly free electon was held. It may nterest you, as an old hand at the poltcal process, that at the 18 votng places on Plebscte Day we recorded only 8 cases of uncertan regstraton and of these 4 were fnally able to vote and 4 could not. The campagnng was lvely but orderly. There was no volence Gener- ' ally, a very good sprt prevaled throughout. We had the great beneft of a vstng lnsson from the Unted Natons Trusteeshp Councl. It conssted of James Murray, Unted Kngdon, Charman; John Melhush, Australa; Bertrand De Latallade, France. They conferred extensvely wth me, dscussed matters wth varous Maranas poltcal leaders and ndvduals, observed the campagn actvtes and poltcal educaton materals, and kepta sharp eye on votng procedures and countng of the ballots. There are dvsons n the Northern Maranas based on ancent ethnc dfferences My staff and I tred very hard not tc polarze or ntensfy

3 r n no small measure on reducng majorty-mnort_ dscrmnatons and I,._ these fears. dfferences, for the future of socety and government here depends The campagn and the votng nevtably reflected these dfferences but we dd all we could to soften them. I have greatly apprecated and enjoyed the prvlege of servng as Plebscte Commssoner. Notmany other Amercans have had such an opportunty and I am deeply grateful to you and to the Secretary of Commerce RogOrs C. B. Morton, who was Secretary of the Interor at the tme of my appontment. I have been provded assstance when I asked for t from Hgh Commssoner Johnston, varous elements of the Trust Terrtory GoverrJnent, and the Maranas Dstrct Admnstraton. When t became apparent that we mght have problems reqdrng the ad of an attorney - as ndeed proved to be the case - the _enune ndependence of my functon was supported by the able servces of John C. Craft, Esq., of Kansas Cty, Mssour. Most of all, however, I have beneftted from the assstance ofmr. Craley, whom I referred to earler. He was de- _.J I tached from hs functon as Specal Assstant for Legslatve Kffa_s to the Hgh Commssoner to serve me as Executve Drector of the Plebscte. I Hs long experence, knowledge, and senstvty toward the peoples of the Northern Maranas were of ndspensakle value. Agan, thanks for a most gratfyng opportunty. 4 Erwn D. Canham :

4 :: L ::: : :... - _.._C /" June 19 - PDN (Joan Kng) "The msson charman for the Unted Natons Trusteeshp Councl James Murray of Scotland, yesterday sad he was very mpressed wth the _good humor,"' 'frendlness,' and 'poltcal maturty' of the l_ranas electorate." /, ' - June 17 - PDN (Joan Kng) " _ "UN Msson Charman James Murray ndcated both sdes were dsapponted n '; / the UN msson.!g _ The antcovenant people want the plebscte stopped, and the procovenant sde wants the UN to nfluence the US Congress to get the covenant approved _:_"_ Murray told the Advsory Commttee..":: :_ Murray sad the duty of the msson was to observe whether the Maranas was.. _ carryng out an act of "free poltcal choce," not to stop the plebscte or nfluence the U.S. Congress. -: Asked after the meetngs f he thought there had been a "far regstraton" :. of voters Murray sad he had no comment.:.:"_ "It's not over. yet, and we have not submtted our report," Murray sad..: June 16 - PDN (Joan Kng) - Tnan & Rota trp,..'! U.N. Representatve Charman James Murray of the Unted Kngdom,. persprng n hs te and jacket and wth a monocle at hs rght eye, sad, "you are all very poltcally mature people.". :_". Etc. See fnal paragraphs of artcle 'o_?:!12_ June 15 - PDN (Borja) }:. ":_ 2 artcles - _- I_I_ June 16 (MNS) 17[, -..'_,:..? _-'... In a meetng wth the Unted Carolnan Assocaton Frday June 14, UN '-..._ representatves told the UCA that nothng can be done to postpone the -:_-.:,_:_ Northern Maranas plebscte. Charman James Murray of the UK told a crowd!:._:._.!.: _. of about 150 at the meetng hall n Garapan Vllage that the msson --, :.-:_. cannot ask that _he electon be postponed because ther (UN) one week vst ----.:_ s "to observe" and "not nterfere wth" the plebscte. -"_'"-"- _:.-:. _:_; " 03 0_3835, / ;._,.,_. -::-.-,_.'_-:.... =:-_" :-... _:_: " : ' _ /_": '7? "! ".:. -.)! ::

5 June 19 - PDN (Joan Kng) "The msson charman for the Unted Natons Trusteeshp Councl James Murray of Scotland, yesterday sad he was very mpressed wth the '_good humor, _' 'frendlness,' and 'poltcal maturty' of the Maranas electorate." June 17 - PDN (Joan Kng) "UN Msson Charman James Murray ndcated both sdes were dsapponted n the UN msson. The antcovenant people want the plebscte stopped, and the procovenant sde wants the UN to nfluence the US Congress to get the covenant approved, Murray told the Advsory Commttee. Murray sad the duty of the msson was to observe whether the Maranas was carryng out an act of "free poltcal choce," not to stop the plebscte or nfluence the U.S. Congress. Asked after the meetngs f he thought there had been a "far regstraton" of voters Murray sad he had no comment. "It's not over yet, and we have not submtted our report," Murray sad. June 16 - PDN (Joan Kng) - Tnan & Rota trp U.N. Representatve Charman James Murray of the Unted Kngdom, persprng n hs te and jacket and wth a monocle at hs rght eye, sad, "you are all very poltcally mature people." Etc. See fnal paragraphs of artcle June 15 - PDN (Borja) 2 artcles - June 16 (MNS) In a meetng wth the Unted Carolnan Assocaton Frday June 14, UN representatves told the UCA that nothng can be done to postpone the Northern Maranas plebscte. Charman James Murray of the UK told a crowd of about 150 at the meetng hall n Garapan Vllage that the msson cannot ask that the electon be postponed because ther (UN) one week vst s "to observe" and "not nterfere wth" the plebscte. O