Significant Events in the Development of Government in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands

Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Office of the High Commissioner (1968-01-10). Significant Events in the Development of Government in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (Report). Saipan, Mariana Islands: Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Office of the High Commissioner. pp. 1–21.

• Has attachment: File:GAPDMHAJ.pdf

Abstract: Chronological reference timeline (1945–1967) compiled by the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) Headquarters Political Affairs Office and circulated by the Office of the High Commissioner on January 10, 1968. The document summarizes major administrative and constitutional milestones in TTPI political development under U.S. administration and U.N. trusteeship, beginning with U.S. Navy interim governance of the former Japanese Mandated Islands (1945–1947) and the entry into force of the Trusteeship Agreement (July 18, 1947).

The timeline then tracks the progressive creation and chartering of municipal governments and district-wide advisory and legislative bodies across the districts (Marshalls, Palau, Yap, Truk, Ponape, and the Marianas), including notable early institutions such as the Saipan municipal charter (July 1, 1947), the Palau Congress (July 4, 1947), and subsequent district congresses/legislatures. It highlights key legal foundations for civil administration and rights protections (e.g., promulgation of the Trust Territory Code and Bill of Rights in 1952; the 1954 Act providing interim organic authority), administrative transfers (Navy to Interior, 1951), and major structural reforms culminating in territory-wide institutions such as the Council of Micronesia (reconstituted in 1961) and the bicameral Congress of Micronesia established by Secretarial Order No. 2882 (September 28, 1964), with formal transfer of legislative authority at the Congress’s first convening (July 12, 1965).

Entries are brief, dated statements intended as a working reference list for policy, historical, and administrative use, emphasizing the stepwise approach described in the transmittal memo: development from local municipal self-government to strengthened district bodies and, ultimately, territory-wide organs of self-government with substantial indigenous participation.