TO VISIT AUCKLAND

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 58, 9 March 1923, Page 8

TO VISIT AUCKLAND

AMERICAN WARSHIP ONTARIO PAGO PAGO OFFICERS EXPECTED. TT^ d aV' Ces llave I>een received that the U.S.S. Ontario, which is attached to the naval station of American Samoa, Tutuila, is to pay a visit to Auckland towards the end of next month for the purposes of docking and overhaul. It is quite possible, that the Governor of American Samoa, Captain Edwin T. Pollock, U.S.-N., together with several .of his station officers, will take advantage of the occasion to visit New Zealand. If Captain Pollock is unable, owing to official 'engagements, to leave- his headquarters on this occasion, he will be represented by Commander Harold Jones, who is second in command of the naval station at Tutuila. It is known that Captain Pollock is most anxious personally to renew his acquaintance with the Dominion, and to give an opportunity to some of his officers to view the scenery of this country. Captain Pollock has visited the Dominion once before, when, as a lieutenant, he was one of the personnel of the battleship Brooklyn (Rear-Admiral Remy). Admiral Remy and the warship were sent to represent the United States Government on the occasion of the inauguration of. the Commonwealth of Australia and the opening of the first Parliament by His Majesty tlie King, then the Duke of York, in 1900. .The Brooklyn made a stay of about a week at Auckland and Wellington before proceeding to Australia. Captain Pollock still has the liveliest recollection of the welcome and hospitality which was extended by New Zealand to the visitors on that occasion.

During the war Captain Pollock was in command of the U.S.S. George Washington, which, after the Armistice, was selected to carry President Woodrow Wilson and the American delegates to life Peace Conference at Paris. . New Zealanders will be interested to know that there has always been the closest and most friendly co-operation between the New Zealand Administration "of Western Samoa and the Naval Administration of American Samoa. The problems of the respective Govern-nents are almost identical, and the 'interchange of views and visits which take place at regular intervals between the officers of the two territories have always been marked by the greatest cordiality and good feeling.