Pursuant to a resolution adopted by the Trusteeship Council on April 24, 1947, concerning the formation of a special mission to be sent to Western Samoa to investigate a petition received from representatives of that area, an ad hoc committee of nine members was established to decide on the composition of the mission. The petition had requested that the territory be granted self-government, that New Zealand as the present administering authority would “see fit to act as Protector and Adviser to Samoa in the same capacity as England is to Tonga,” and that the division of the Samoan islands, with Eastern Samoa as a possession of the United States and Western Samoa under the trust administration of New Zealand, be discontinued.