ISLANDS AND THE AIR AGE

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 110, 11 May 1935, Page 8

ISLANDS AND THE AIR AGE

Honolulu, Midway Island, and Pacific aerial war games! The massed flight of 48 naval patrol aeroplanes from Honolulu to Midway Island draws attention to the fact : that jhe U.S. Navy war games are to take., place along the route of an ! ambitious attempt by American [Airways to establish a trans-Pacific comniercial air service to Manila arid | ultimately to Chinai The links in this commercial chain are stated to be: (1) San Francisco to Honolulu, 2100 miles; (2) Honolulu (Hawaiian Islands) vto Midway Island, 1150 miles; (3) Midway Island to Wilkes Island, 1200 miles; (4) Wilkes Island to Guam, 1450 miles; j (5) Guam, to Manila, 1500 miles. There, seems, to .be some doubt as to whether the United States has a valid claim to all the islands concerned; American advices in March stated,.that,Wilkes Island is one of three f6rming the Wake Island group and has never been inhabited. Its transformation into" an air-base would a striking illustration of how air-travel may give ac commercial and strategic value to waste spots lost in vast oceans and known I hitherto only to chart-makers. A squad of technicians was to have left the United States in April, by steamship, to construct bases for the | commercial service at Midway and ; Wilkes. Apparently the air arm of ,the navy is following their trail. Trade and the flag are to go together.