IN THE SOUTHERN SEAS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 96, 13 August 1914, Page 4

IN THE SOUTHERN SEAS.

Apia, 1 Samoa, it is considered ..|i/3 most probably-'the destination ;of the Geimari cruiser. Nurnoergj which is voported to have ' left Honolulu for the Southern Seas. Apia is the centre of German interests in the South Pacific; it, is the headquarters of the •j;reat Hamburg trading corporation Deutsche Handel unci Plantageii =ielschaft, a title popularly abbreviated in the South Sea Islands to the "Long Handle Company," and a smalL fleet of vessels under the German flag trades to many of the Central Pacific' islands. Apia is not fortified, although at one time and another in its chequered life since the "papalangi" set up a" trading town there it lias seen more fighting than has fallen to the lot of any other South Pacific settlement. Usually there are one or two small German war -raft in the German areas of the South Pacific, dividing their attention between Fpolu and its sister island Savaii, and the Kaiser's possessions to the Avestward and northward, the Bismarck Archipelago and German New Guinea, and the atolls of the Marshall Group. One of these vessels is the Cormoran, which periodically visits Auckland. She is an unprotected cruiser of sixteen hundred tons, built twenty-two years ago, irmed with eight four-inch guns, and carrying 160 men. The Nurnberg is i fast protected cruiser of 3396 tons, 'milt eight years ago, steaming 23.5 knots, armed with ten 4.1 guns, and a number of smaller pieces, and manicd by a crew numbering 295.