Evening star., 1948-11-03
Murder Of Tinian Girl
JoIts Project Started
By -Four Americans
By George Weller
Foreign Correspondent Of The stor and
the Chicago Daily News

ths chieaso Daily News =
TINIAN, Marianas Islands, Nov.
3.-Here on Tinian, American free
enterprise is getting its first chance
so far to develop our new islands
in the Pacific.
A modest venture in business
farming has been permitted to pass
through the general policy Of closed
door in the vast fan Of islands ad-
ministered by the Navy.
The recent mysterious murder Of
a native house girl employed by
one Of the four partners in the busi-
ness has jolted the ventures pros
poets, however.
The bookkeeper and part owner,
Bruce Bitler of Honolulu, has been
placed under house arrest here by
the Navy on suspicion Of having
murdered his Chamorro housemaid.
The murder occurred the day MIR.
Bitler returned to the island after
visit elsewhere. Ballistics experts
say the bullets found in the girls
body were fired, from a revolver
the farming pioneer kept in the
bureau.
Facts Kept Secret.
The Navy Is keeping the fact and
investigation Of the murder closely
under wraps while sending the evi-
dence to Washington for study by
the FBI. Neither the murder nor
Mr.. Bitler's implication as vet have
been published by the Navy-owned
Guam News, and $4,000 Americans
here are ignorant of it.
Four visiting newspapermen in
Guiding myself took tour of Tinian
farm under Navy guidance the other
day without being told that MIR.
Bitler was involved in murder. a
TACT which we learned by accident
later.
The Tinian Produce Co. Is the
brainchild Of four Pacific veterans,
headed by Clair Young of Honolulu.
One partner, Jerry Kennedy, sailed
alone In a 30-foot sloop from Hawaii
to the Marianas to enter the food
raising business here. The partners
have acquired, at a dollar an acre.
the use Of 1000 acres of fertile soil.
OF which 400 are growing corn.
onions. radishes, cabbage and the
largest watermelons outside Dixie.
The farm Is located at Sutton
Place-Tinian is the island which
was marked out by aviation en-
gineers with highways and crosstown
streets named for those on Manhat-
ton-and employees 80 to 80 natives
OF the Marianas, including Chamor-
ros and Kanakas. They earn up to
500 month at a cents an hour.
a wage rate less than that on Guam
but about three times that prevail
ing elsewhere in the American trust
territory.
Fear Exploitation Charge.
Leaning over backward to avoid
any charges of imperialism" or
"exploitation," the Navy elsewhere
has barred American enterprise, in
sisting that only native enterprise
be licensed. This protective policy
Is different from the Japanese prece-
dent. which was to push insular
development ahead fast with the
natives as employees or at best very
Junior partners.
The Navy's reason for opening the
island door q chink here Is the
pressing problem Of fresh food for
Guam, the overpopulated American
Gibraltar.
It costs $3.50 Q ton to ship food
from Tinian to Guam. as against
$50 ton from the Pacific Coast.
What Is profitable for the owners
Of Tinian Produce Co. is also q gain
for the American taxpayer support
ing these remote bases. Tinian's
prices, however. encounter some re-
sistance on neighboring Saipan.
Mess officers don't like paying $2.50
for local watermelon.
With its lease expiring In four
more years, the future of the produce
company Is dependent on Navy ap-
proval. For the final three years the
company has agreed to pay 4 per
cent of its gross income instead of
land rent. BY then the machinery
acquired at bargain prices from the
Nays defunct U. 8. Commercial Co.
will nav off Handsomely.