PACIFIC POWERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22846, 29 September 1937, Page 13

PACIFIC POWERS

PROPOSED CONFERENCE DISCUSSION OF CONFLICT ■ POLICY OF ■ UNITED STATES By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received September 28, 5.5 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 Commenting on a report from Geneva that the United States Government had refused to participate in a conference of Pacific Powers on the subject of the Sino-Japanese conflict the State Department denied that it had received a formal proposal for such a conference. It was pointed out that the consistent policy of the Secretary of State, Mr. Cordell Hull, had been that any situation threatening the peace of the world was a matter for mutual action by all nations. One message from Geneva was to the effect that it was understood the United States would agree to a conference of the Pacific Powers and that probably it would be held in London in October. SOUTH CHINA ISLANDS RECENT JAPANESE SEIZURE EXPERTS WATCH POSITION LONDON, Sept. 17 What the future of the Chineseowned Pratas Shoals and Linting Island, at present under the domination of Japanese arms, is likely to be, no one in London can speculate. The shoals are 180 miles south-east of Hongkong. Linting Island is a few miles outside the maritime boundary of Hongkong. No official comment by naval, air, or military authorities can be obtained. It is learned from another source that, if the Sino-Japanese war results in a victory for Japan, Japan will retain the Pratas Shoals, develop the islet's coral reefs, establish naval and fuel stores, and aviation bases, which will be defended by anti-aircraft guns and long-range batteries, and that Linting Island will be similarly developed. Such action would not be likeiy to escape the closest attention of the foreign authorities concerned. It is pointed out that the strategic importance of the former German Pacific islands now under Japanese mandate is due to their position athwart the direct sea route from the United States to the Philippines, and Japanese ownership of tho Pratas would strengthen the position. Experts consider that the importance of Linting lies partly in the fact that it gives Japan a point at* which it may attempt to command the southern or Canton gateway to China. At present Britain, at Hongkong and also at Singapore, commands the Canton gateway. It is further pointed out that the grouping of the four main Powers in relation to China is first Japan, which is established in Korea and Manchukuo; the United States in the Philippines; Britain at Hongkong,and Singapore; and France in Indo China. The annexation of Pratas and Linting, it is said, must strengthen Japan's potential control of the China coast from Korea to Indo-China. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES PRATAS REEF AS AIR BASE AMERICAN FIRM'S INTEREST A possible clue to the interest at present being taken in the Pratas Islands, about 200 miles south-east of Hongkong, which were recently seized by the Japanese, is given in an issue of the Pan American Weekly News Bulletin, published before the Japanese took possession. It is suggested that the islands could be developed as an emergency landing area for aircraft. "Pratas Reef, one of the most desolate spots on the Asiatic Coast long famed solely for the danger which it has represented to shipping on the China Sea, is to be investigated for tho possibilities of attaining a more humane role in the affairs of men," the bulletin states.

"The reef stands on a direct airline between China and the Philippines. The Chinese Navy many years ago established a radio and weather station on the reef in order to give advance reports on the movements of typhoons in that area, and to warn ships plying between the Philippines and the China Coast of the hazards represented by its shoals, "With the opening of the ManilaHongkong air route by Pan American Airways, the reef began to assume a new status. It has become an important aerial landfall for the weekly westbound Clipper from the Philippines. Aerial travellers have become much interested in the 50 Chinese who are isolated for six-monthly periods on the reef to serve as keepers of the light. " Chinese newspapers have been dropped from time to time on the reef from the air, and recently a Philippine labour leader, while flying from the Philippine capital to China, on an impulse of generosity, removed his new shoes and dropped them overboard as a gift 'to the men on the reef. "Ever since the inauguration of the Pan American service across the China Seas, the officers of the Hongkong Clipper, on each weekly passage, have been carefully studying the reef from the air. These superficial aerial studies have led to the decision to investigate Pratas Beef by surface craft, in what seems a well-founded hope that in the future the protected inner waters of what has been for ages known as only a serious maritime hazard, may bo marked on airway maps as a practical and sale emergency landing area for aircraft."