AMERICA ANNEXES PACIFIC ISLANDS

Northern Advocate, 4 February 1936, Page 8

AMERICA ANNEXES PACIFIC ISLANDS

FOR AIR MAIL SERVICES

(Received 10 a.m.)

LONDON, Febi'uary 2

The “Sun-Herald” News Service says that a report has reached London through a Hawaiian publicity bureau, that the United States has annexed Baker, Howland, and Jarvis islands in connection with the trans-Pacific air service, but no statement is available in official quarters. The moving figure is said to be Mr Samuel Wilder King, Hawaiian delegate in the United States Congress. The American claim is reported

to he based on the assertion that

British ownership cannot legally be recognised because it is not an

“occupational ownership.”

It is stated that Mr Samuel King “colonised” the islands by setting small groups of American citizens of Hawaiian birth on each island.

The “Sunday Express” says tijat Mr Walter Doyle, Collector of Customs at Honolulu, recently made a gesture, intended to emphasise American ownership, by refusing to have his luggage examined on returning from the islands, claiming that they were American territory. It is also reported that Mr Samuel King “colonised” Christmas Island for America, admitting that the island was “generally considered British, but may be the next South Seas atoll under the American .flag.” Mr King adds that if Fanning and Washington could be acquired from the British, everything in mid-Paci-fic revolving round Hawaii would be completely American-owned. The “Sunday Express” draws.attention to the possibility of complications regarding Fanning Island owing to Burns, Philp having the controlling interest.