PACIFIC AIR RACE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23044, 21 November 1936, Page 18

PACIFIC AIR RACE

LOST ATOLLS PRIZES Colonisation of Howland, Baker and Jarvis Islands, giving America a strategic advantage in the air-line race to girdle the Pacific, has imparted new significance to other oceanic specks (says the San Francisco Chronicle). Rescued from oblivion by aeroplane, the islands have put forward a host of unsettled problems and conflicting claims. One of the tiny areas much under discussion, Christmas Island, described by experts as the most adaptive seaplane base between Honolulu and American Samoa, was discovered and named by Captain James Cook on Christmas Day in 1777. Its ownership may be debatable to-day. A coral atoll, encircling a placid and deep lagoon, it lies about 1200 miles south of Hawaii. Although too far east for a direct Hawaii-Australia air line, Christmas Island is well placed for the day, confidently foreseen by some observers, when a straight route will be established from mainland United States or South America to the Antipodes. Great Britain now claims sovereignty there, but the atoll once was listed among the Guano Islands held by the United States. About 1872 the U.S.S. Narragansett took possession, and Christmas Island was occupied by three Honolulu settlers, who subsequently departed. A Frenchman reported to be a Catholic priest is understood to hold the island at present under an 87year lease from the British Government. MAY CAUSE BARGAINING Similarly important, Marcus Island may cause Japan and the United States to bargain for sovereignty which both claim. Marcus, a wreckstrewn atoll, lies roughly 720 miles north-west of Wake atoll, PanAmerican Airways present midPacific base points. The island is strategically situated for a spur line to Tokio. Some observers expect Germany to seek repossession of islands now administered largely by Japan. The importance of the three islands for military purposes has been recognised by the United States navy. Other nations? according to Representative James P. Buchanan, of Texas, who sponsored an Administration appropriation of £7OOO for colonisation of the islands, “ are preparing to take possession of them physically.” Mr Ray A. Kleindienst, an administrative officer in the division of territories and insular possessions of the Department of Interior, and R. B. Black, field representative of the Department, arrived at Honolulu in mid-July to supervise arrangements for administration of the pos sessions. Kleindienst, who will be there permanently, pointed out that Howland and Baker are on the line of a prospective air route to Australia, and Jarvis on the route from Hawaii to New Zealand.