nation control of the Commanding Officer, United States Naval Hos-
pital, Guam.
The Guam Memorial Hospital, which was an indig-
enous institution, was transferred to Department of Interior control
in July rg50 and the School of Nursing becamethe responsibility of the
new administration.
The Navy had no information as late as December 6, 1950 about
Department of Interior plans for continuation of the schools because,
on that day, the Secretary of the Navy wrote the Secretary of the [nterior that he did not know thesituation in respect to the future status
and training after July 1, 1951 of those enrolled at the schools. He
hoped, however, that the Department of the Interior would continue
a “sound and well integrated health program” andofferedthe “services
of the Naval Medical personnel stationed on Guam for time-to-time
lectures as desired on general or special medical and dental subjects
for use as the Department ofthe Interior may see fit.”
The standard of education at the medical and nursing schools deteriorated noticeably during the fall of 1950 and this situation wasof
concern to the Navy. The number of lecture hours given by staf
members of the naval hospital to medical students had been cut from
the previous 34 hours to ro hours and several instructors, including an
English teacher, had been discharged. The nursing trainees received
no formal classroom instruction after the administration of Guam
Memorial Hospital had been transferred from the Navy and the
students were being used only for cleaning the hospital." Although
the situation had been corrected by November 1950, many of the
nursing students left the school and returned to their homes.
The Department of the Interior meanwhile had decided to keep
the School of Nursing on Guam and had made arrangements with
the Society of Medical Missionaries of New York, a Catholic nursing
order, to take over the school.” The new administration also was
considering the possibility of transferring the medical and dental
students from Guam to the Central Medical School at Suva, Fiji.”
This school, operated by the British South Pacific Health Service,
had been established in 1888 and built around the Colonial War
* SecNavltr ser 1009P22 dtd 6 Dec so.
_ Encl (6) to Field TerPacls ltr ser 804 dtd 20 Dee 50.
* Hhid.
® Chief Pacific Branch, Dept of Interior, Itr to Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner for
the Western Pacific dtd 21 Nov sn.
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