The English summaries of papers relating to the German administration of Western Samoa were made by Mrs Trudi Newbury for the then Department of Pacific History, to assist the late Mr R.P. Gilson in preparing a Ph.D. thesis on the administration of Samoa. A book by Gilson, entitled 'Samoa: 1830-1900', was published posthumously by Oxford University Press in 1970.

A brief description of the contents appears at the beginning of the microfilm. See also PMB MS 1003 and 1009 which contain Gilson's drafts and research materials.