(3) to make use of volunteer forces, facilities and assistance from the trust territory in carrying out the obligations towards the Security Council undertaken in this regard by the administering authority, as well as for the local defense and the maintenance of law and order within the trust territory.

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

On February 15, 1975, a Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America was signed at Saipan by representatives of the United States and the Northern Mariana Islands. The signing of this agreement marked the culmination of negotiations which had begun in December 1972. The agreement would enter into force in part after approval by the Mariana Islands District Legislature and by the people of the Northern Mariana Islands in a plebiscite, constituting on their part a sovereign act of selfdetermination, and approval by the United States in accordance with its constitutional processes. The Northern Mariana Islands would achieve self-governing commonwealth status under United States sovereignty at such time as the Trusteeship Agreement between the United States and the Security Council of the United Nations (TIAS 1665; 61 Stat. 3301; entered into force July 18, 1947) has been terminated. The United States has informed the United Nations Trusteeship Council that it intends to terminate the Trusteeship Agreement simultaneously for all parts of the Trust Territory and not for one part separately.

The first step in the approval process was completed on February 20, 1975, when the Mariana Islands District Legislature unanimously passed a resolution which approved the Covenant for submission to the people of the Islands in a plebiscite to be called by the United States. On February 28, 1975, the Mariana Islands District Legislature passed a resolution requesting the United States, as administering authority of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI), to set a date and call a plebiscite in the Mariana Islands District in order to accord the people of the District the opportunity to express their decision on the Covenant. The plebiscite was held on June 17, 1975, under the supervision of a personal representative of the President of the United States and in the presence of an observer mission from the United Nations Trusteeship Council. The vote was 78.8 percent to approve the Covenant, with 95 percent of the registered voters of the Northern Mariana Islands participating.

On July 1, 1975, President Ford transmitted to Congress a proposed Joint Resolution which would provide congressional approval of the Covenant. It was introduced on July 9, 1975, as H.J.

Res. 549, and was approved by a voice vote in the House of Representatives on July 21, 1975. Hearings were held in November by the Senate Committees on Foreign Relations and Armed Forces. Submission of a joint report of the two Committees was deferred until January 27, 1976.

The Covenant includes a preamble and ten articles, subdivided into sections, covering the following topics:

Article I-Political Relationship

Article II-Constitution of the Northern Mariana Islands

Article III-Citizenship and Nationality

Article IV-Judicial Authority

Article V-Applicability of Laws

Article VI-Revenue and Taxation

Article VII-United States Financial Assistance

Article VIII-Property

Article IX-Northern Mariana Islands Representative and Consultation

Article X-Approval, Effective Dates, and Definitions

The preamble recognizes that the Charter of the United Nations and the Trusteeship Agreement guarantee to the people of the Northern Marianas the right freely to express their wishes for self-government or independence. It notes both the support of the United States for the desire of the poeple of the Islands to exercise their right of self-determination and the clearly expressed desire of those people for political union with the United States.

Article I provides the basis of the political union of the Northern Mariana Islands with and under United States sovereignty. Local self-government is vested in the people of the Islands, and foreign affairs and defense responsibilities are vested in the United States. The sections of Article I are as follows:

Article I

Political Relationship

Section 101. The Northern Mariana Islands upon termination of the Trusteeship Agreement will become a self-governing commonwealth to be known as the "Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands", in political union with and under the sovereignty of the United States of America.

Section 102. The relations between the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States will be governed by this Covenant which, together with those provisions of the Constitution, treaties and laws of the United States applicable to the Northern Mariana Islands, will be the supreme law of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Section 103. The people of the Northern Mariana Islands will have the right of local self-government and will govern themselves with respect to internal affairs in accordance with a Constitution of their own adoption.

Section 104. The United States will have complete responsibility for and authority with respect to matters relating to foreign affairs and defense affecting the Northern Mariana Islands.

Section 105. The United States may enact legislation in accordance with its constitutional processes which will be applicable to the Northern Mariana Islands, but if such legislation cannot also be made applicable to the several States, the Northern Mariana Islands must be specifically named therein for it to become effective in the Northern Mariana Islands. In order to respect the right of self-government guaranteed by this Covenant the United States agrees to limit the exercise of that authority so that the fundamental provisions of this Covenant, namely Articles I, II, and III and Sections 501 and 805, may be modified only with the consent of the Government of the United States and the Government of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Under the provisions of Article II the people of the Northern Mariana Islands are authorized to formulate and approve a Constitution to be submitted to the United States Government for approval on the basis of its consistency with the Covenant and provisions of the Constitution, treaties and laws of the United States to be applicable to the Northern Mariana Islands. Unless disapproved by the United States Government within six months of its submission to the President, it will be deemed approved. Amendments to the Constitution may be made by the people of the Northern Mariana Islands without approval by the United States Government, but the courts established by the Constitution or laws of the United States will be competent to determine the consistency of the Northern Marianas Constitution and any amendments thereto with the Covenant and applicable provisions of the Constitution, treaties and laws of the United States.

For the text of Sections 301-304, constituting Article III of the Covenant, see post, Ch. 3, § 1, p. 115.

Under Article IV the Northern Mariana Islands will constitute part of the same judicial circuit as Guam. The United States will establish a District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands with the jurisdiction of a district court of the United States except that it will have jurisdiction in all cases arising under the Constitution, treaties or laws of the United States regardless of the sum or value of the matter in controversy. The District Court will have original jurisdiction in all cases in the Northern Mariana Islands not described above if jurisdiction is not vested by the Northern Marianas Constitution or laws in a court of the Northern Mariana Islands. It will have appellate jurisdiction as that Constitution or those laws may provide. The laws of the United States pertaining to relations between United States courts and the courts of the several States will govern the relations between the courts of the Northern Mariana Islands and courts established by the Constitution or laws of the United States with respect to appeals, certio

rari, removal of cases, the issuance of writs of habeas corpus, and other matters, with certain stated exceptions for the first fifteen years.

Article V of the Covenant specifies that the following provisions of the United States Constitution and amendments thereto will be applicable within the Northern Mariana Islands as if those Islands were one of the several States: Article I, Section 9, clauses 2, 3, and 8; Article I, Section 10, clauses 1 and 3; Article IV, Section 1 and Section 2, clauses 1 and 2; and Amendment 13, Amendment 14, Section 1, and Amendments 15, 19 and 26, except that neither trial by jury nor indictment by grand jury shall be required in any civil action or criminal prosecution based on local law, unless required by local law. Other constitutional provisions or amendments, which do not apply of their own force, will be applicable only with the approval of the Government of the Northern Mariana Islands and the Government of the United States. Laws of the United States and their subsequent amendments to be applied in the Northern Mariana Islands include those providing Federal services and financial assistance programs and the Federal banking laws as they apply to Guam; Section 228 of Title II and Title XVI of the Social Security Act as it applies to the States; the Public Health Service Act as it applies to the TTPI; other laws applicable to Guam and the several States as they apply to the States, and other laws, but not their subsequent amendments, as they apply to the TTPI until termination of the Trusteeship Agreement. Activities of the United States Government and its contractors in the Northern Mariana Islands are to be governed by the laws of the United States regarding coastal shipments and the conditions of employment, including the wages and hours of employees.

Section 506 contains provisions with respect to application of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended. For the text of Section 506, see post, Ch. 3, § 1, p. 116.

Under Article VI United States income tax laws will become effective in the Northern Mariana Islands in the same manner as they are in force in Guam. The Government of the Northern Marianas may impose additional taxes as appropriate.

The Northern Mariana Islands will not be included within the customs territory of the United States, and its Government may levy duties on goods imported into its territory from any area outside the customs territory of the United States and may impose duties on exports. Imports into United States customs territory will be treated in the same manner as imports from Guam. Favorable treatment for Northern Mariana exports will be sought from foreign countries by the United States.

Excise taxes may be levied by the United States on goods manufactured, sold or used or services rendered in the Northern Marianas to the extent applicable in Guam. The Northern Marianas Government may impose excise taxes consistent with the international obligations of the United States.

Article VI limits the authority of the Northern Mariana Islands to that of the several States to impose customs duties on property of the United States or on personal property of United States military or civilian personnel or to impose taxes on property, activities, or instrumentalities of the United States.

Provision is made for application of the social security laws to the Northern Marianas as they are applicable to Guam.

Under Article VII the United States is pledged to provide direct multiyear financial support to the Northern Mariana Islands for seven years for local government operations, capital improvement, and economic development, and to make available the full range of Federal programs and services available to the territories of the United States.

Article VIII provides for transfer to the Northern Marianas Government of all right, title, and interest of the Government of the TTPI in and to real property in the Northern Marianas no later than upon termination of the Trusteeship Agreement. All right, title, and interest of the Government of the TTPI to personal property is to be distributed in a manner to be determined by that Government in consultation with those concerned, including the Northern Marianas Government.

To enable the United States to carry out its defense responsibilities, Section 802 provides for approximately 18,182 acres of land on Tinian Island, Saipan Island, and Farallon de Medinilla Island to be made available to the United States Government by lease. Of this acreage, approximately 17,799 acres are on Tinian Island. The lease will be for fifty years with a renewal option for an additional fifty years. Total payment in full settlement of the lease, including the second fifty-year term if extended, is set at $19,520,600, adjustable by a percentage equivalent to the percentage change in the Department of Commerce composite price index from the date of signing the Covenant. Detailed arrangements are included in a separate Technical Agreement, including lease-back arrangements for the sum of one dollar per acre per year for portions of the leased land on Tinian Island and at Tanapag Harbor on Saipan Island, which will be used for purposes compatible with their intended military use.

Existing agreements between the United States and the TTPI which grant to the United States rights in real property in the