Arthur A. Greene

Greene's wife, Gretchen, was a niece of Samuel Sailele Ripley.^[7] On March 31, 1920, Greene and his wife, Gretchen, arrived on Tutuila Island in American Samoa to assist Samuel S. Ripley. Greene's reports critical of the local government soon drew off-island attention. He supported Commander Creed H. Boucher, the executive officer to Governor Warren Terhune, who was later found guilty of subversive activities and sent back to the United States. Greene launched a letter-writing campaign to members of the U.S. Congress, accusing Governor Terhune of approving the embezzlement of government funds by officers. He also contended that treaties between the United States and the Samoan people permitted only the use of Pago Pago Bay and did not authorize broader U.S. authority. As a result, he challenged both the U.S. Navy's administration in American Samoa and the very scope of American sovereignty there.^[9][4]

Greene maintained that the United States held authority solely over the territory it had purchased and occupied, granting it no right to enforce laws across the rest of Tutuila Island or the Manuʻa Islands. He therefore argued that the U.S. Navy-appointed Governor had no legal grounds to interfere with the Ripley family's development project in Leone.^[6] Greene recalled that upon becoming counsel to the Mau movement, he advised drafting a formal bill of complaints for submission to Governor Terhune. However, he was informed that such a bill had already been filed—and subsequently ignored.^[10]

On November 31, 1920, a U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry ordered Greene's deportation from American Samoa, holding both him and Commander Creed H. Boucher responsible for stirring unrest that allegedly drove Governor Terhune to take his own life. Upon his return to Hawaiʻi on December 20, 1920, Greene described events in American Samoa as “the most astonishing travesty of justice I ever saw.”^[11] Greene explicitly denied any role in organizing the Mau movement.^[9] Greene maintained that the Mau movement had invited him to serve as their legal counsel, but the United States Navy accused him of misinforming and misleading Samoans into unrest.^[7] After his deportation, Greene wrote to Senator Reed Smoot, published articles in Honolulu newspapers outlining his views, and summarized his position in a letter to President Calvin Coolidge.^[12]

A decade after his deportation from American Samoa, Greene presented his views in a paper prepared for the Samoan Civic Association. He opposed governmental interference by local chiefs, the alienation of land, and miscegenation, and advocated for the exclusion of undesirable labor undesirable and white individuals. Greene recommended establishing a civil government comprising an American governor and judge, a Samoan vice governor and sheriff, and a mixed-race treasurer.^[13]

• Chapell, David A (2000). "The Forgotten Mau: Anti-Navy Protest in American Samoa, 1920–1935". Pacific Historical Review. 69 (2). ISSN 0030-8684.
• Gray, John Alexander Clinton (1960). Amerika Samoa: A History of American Samoa and its United States Naval Administration. United States Naval Institute. ISBN 9780870210747. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Sunia, Fofō Iosefa Fiti (2001). Puputoa: Host of Heroes - A record of the history makers in the First Century of American Samoa, 1900-2000. Suva, Fiji: Oceania Printers. ISBN 9829036022.