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46. Under these circumstances the way seems open for New Zealand to go forward, as it is already doing, with constructive plans for the progressive development of a self-govering Samoa. It is for the Samoan and European population of the Territory to understand their limitations, which must be translated into temporary restrictions in the exercise of self-government. It is for the United Nations to look with understanding on this embryo of a nation struggling to work out its destiny within the framework of the trusteeship system. G. REFERENCE TO THE TONGAN GOVERNMENT 47. Samoan leaders made it clear to the Mission that the case of Tonga was introduced into the petition merely to demonstrate that selfgovernment could exist in such an island community, with aid and protection from a larger outside authority. It was not intended that Western Samoa should become a close replica of Tonga. 48. Conditions in Tonga, as the Mission saw on its brief visit, are very different in specific respects from conditions in Samoa. Tongan political life, built upon a single hereditary sovereign and a nobility, does not correspond to the Samoan political system. Samoa lacks a universally accepted single ruler. There is little historic unity between the Samoan leading families and between the followers of the three " Royal descendents " of the highest rank and honour (the Fautua). H. REFERENCE TO EASTERN SAMOA 49. The third paragraph of the petition prays " that the unnatural division of the islands of the Samoan group enforced by the Three Powers in the past without the consent of the Samoan s be left in abeyance until a meeting can be arranged between Eastern and Western Samoa." 50. From its arrival in Samoa the Mission made clear that its authority under the Trusteeship Council did not extend to consideration of this problem. For the record, it may be said that the question of unifying the two parts of the Samoan group, one under New Zealand Trusteeship and the other a United States possession, was brought up from time totime by Samoans who talked with the Mission.