SUICIDE OF GOVERNOR.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 December 1920, Page 10 (Supplement)

SUICIDE OF GOVERNOR.

SENSATION IN AMERICAN SAMOA. COMMISSION OF INQUIRY ARRIVES. •Pagopago, Nov. >S. The residents of the Island of Tutuilti, white, and Samofn alike, continue to be stirred by a series of dramatic events. The Government of American Samoa had proceeded smoothly up to quite recently, when disaffection spread among -the natives. It was claimed that it waß fomented by Lt.-Commander Boucher, who was in charge of the naval yard, One outcome of tlie agitation was the dismiesal of two native governors and the suspension of the chief of the navy yard. His successor was a Commander A. C. Kail, and it is claimed that lie also did not work in harmony with Governor Warren J. Terhune, Commander U.S.N. The authorities at Washington decided that a thorough investigation was desirable, and Admiral Hughes was dispatched on the battleship Kansas, tp conduct a searching inquiry into the affairs of American Samoa. The warship was expeeted here on the sth, and Lieut.-Commander Boucher, whose actions in supporting the. natives were to he the main subject of inquiry, was to arrive hy the Sonoma on the Bth. A terrible tragedy staggered the little community of Pagopago on the eve of the arrival of the Kansas. Governor Terhune committed suicide at his residence at noon on the 3rd. During the morning he had attended his office and had had interviews with several of the chiefs loyal to the administration. He appeared in good spirits when leaving with liia orderly about noon to return to his residence. Upon reaching the house he entered and went upstairs by the back stairs: apparently he proceeded straight to the bathroom and leaning over the bath shot himself through, tin* heart with a 45 pistol. The servant who investigated the cause of the noise, upstairs found the Governor in the bath. Mrs. Terhune was below on the porch with the wife of the senior naval surgeon, Mrs. Dollard, and doctors were quickly in attendance. T'lev could do nothing. Commander Kail, as senior officer "of the port, assumed the -Governorship, aMI among his first acts were the reinstatement oi the two Governors who had been suspended because of disaffection, and the dismissal of the natives who had been put in their places. Court proceedings were also suspended. Next day the Kainas arrived and the investigation of the unsatisfactory state of affairs of the territory is to proceed forthwith.

The body of the late Governor is to be taken up to the States by the naval collier i Brutus, by which Mrs. Terhune, with whom (ho greatest sympathy is felt, will be a passenger.