CANTON ISLAND

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 58, Issue 4194, 9 June 1939, Page 7

CANTON ISLAND

ALMOST ON THE EQUATOR. ITS IMPORTANCE AS LANDING PLACE. In a very few months it is expected that another American Clipper will glide to rest upon the sheltered water of the Waitemata, thus bringing New Zealand within four days’ journey of the United States of America. Such a venture brings into prominence again the question of the ownership of a small group of islands in the Western Pacific known as the Phoenix Group. In this group there are eight small islands with a total area of about 16 square miles and a population of sixty persons. The islands were annexed by Great Britain in the years between 1889 and 1892. On Bth April of this year a White Paper announced the conclusion of a fifty years’ agreement between Great Britain and the United States whereby the two contracting parties are to have joint use of the islands of Canton and Enderbury, two of the members of this group. An airport is to be constructed on one or other of these islands by an American .company, and it is there that the American clippers will call on their way to and from San Francisco and Auckland. The administration of the islands will be in the hands of two officials, one appointed by each Government. In return for an agreed fee, British aircraft and British aviation companies are to be allowed the use of this airport. Aircraft of other nations may make use of the facilities of the port, but no civil aviation companies other than those of Great Britain and the United States may use such port as part of a regular air service.