SPRATLY ISLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 80, 5 April 1939, Page 10

SPRATLY ISLAND.

ANSWER TO SINGAPORE?

(By AKPAD

An uncon-idorod (rill,. (]irou«h tl oniurios, -u.'ii as Ciiiitiin .Hid oilier islands in the I'a.-ifie. Spratly [siaud. in Dip Smith China Sμ. first '"Hue prominently before the Croat Towoiv in )!l:l:l. when a Vri'iicli expedition proclaimed ihn sovereignly of Franco. The oxpodit i,»n at the <:init' lime laid claim to ntlicr iMimll i-lands in tin- vicinity—Amboina. Ttu-Abti, the ])pu\ I-los .L-roii],. l.uaila and Tlii-Tn. .Tii|>iin proU-tod iiKwj vigorously, with,.in .11>!.;) ifiit ri'.Oit. as the majority of the Wands. although really -| ,-in'< land*." were L'eneri'"y < >idored Chinese. France ignored the .I:i ]..iiw~.- protest*. Croat Britain had a shadowy claim (o Spraily and Amboina !,4nuds, but raided no ohjoetions to Franco's claims, although in tht> saint> year. l!»:s:f. 11.M.5. I.owo-foft was dispatched there for ozonation purposes. .Tiwt |, r i,, r ( o her visit the French survey vessel Astrolabe had lwon busy eorroclinnr tlie somewhat vajrnp charts of tli'« area. The French did not actually occupy Spratly l-l.i ii<l—it iviH left a~ a seasonal station for ( hinivo fishermen. The Japanese took advantage of the French omission and landed partie* of occupation. Wi. now <cc the shrewdness of that move—they can quote the prp<-edent of Die Tiiited State.- of America in the of (anion and ofher i-land- in t lie Pacific and certain areas in the Antarctic. Tn .-i/e. Sprat ly T-land is a mere dot. Tt i- commercially worthless. Tt is only about ei.L'lif feet hi«h and Hat. bordered l,y white sand and broken coral. A few coconut treeuiovv in the southwest ern corner, while to the north-east there are a few other trees. Thai i- all. if we except the multitudes of γ-im birds which for lonjr have no-tod there midi-l in bed. Hul the island has -ome •=( rat epical iinpor(aiicc. With their characteristic ingenuity, the .Tapantvo could make it a submarine base a.L:uin-t Singapore, the Philippines and Freiii-h Indo-Chimi. For a modern submarine the di-tances from Spratly I-laud I" tlic-c points ill - i;_' 11 ili c■ ; 1111. It i- til:! mile- ninth cat-f of Si ih:.: pore. 2li() miles K.S.K. f.'oin Saigon (tin , French naval -tatiou in In, In (hi, ia i. lij:, mile- S.W. from Manila, and Joii mile,- from Ta 11 •_■, ■11 ir H.iram. in the Brunei Sultanate of British N'orlli Borneo. The iioare-t [loint in the Philippines is 2-10 niiloa away. It may well bo. therefore, that tlio Japanese seizure of Spratly It-land is in part an answer to Singapore. It also hrin™* .7apan a >tep nearer to American. Freivh and Netherlands territorv in the Far East.