JAPANESE GOAL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4529, 28 January 1942, Page 6

JAPANESE GOAL

ISLAND OF CELEBES OLD DUTCH POSSESSION IMPORTANT TRADE CENTRE Brought into the news by the Japanese landing in the district of Minahassa, in the extreme north-east, the island of Celebes is less known to the British travellers than other parts of the Netherlands East Indies. Celebes is very old geologically, and stands in remarkably deep seas beyond the Asiatic and Australian continental shelves which bear the neighbouring large islands. It is most curiously shaped, with a mountainous backbone running north and south, from which three long peninsulas extend from north-east, east and south-east. Although the coastline is 2000 miles long, the area is only 69,250 square miles and no place is as much as TP miles from the sea. MIXTURE OF PEOPLES Most of the interior is very broken mountainous and forest-covered, and large districts are entirely uninhabited. The two highest peaks are both about 10,000 ft. There are some fertile high grasslands and rift valleys, with several very deep lakes. Except in the south, where the capital, Makassar, is situated, and in the northeast, roads are lacking and the only communications are by sea. An airline was established between Batavia and Makassar in 1937. There are six native peoples in Celebes, some of them rather primitive tribes lately addicted to headhunting. Most are predominantly Malay, but Polynesian strains are also found. The principal religion is Mohammedanism. The inhabitants of Minahassa, a fertile volcanic region with one cone, Klabat, 6500 ft. high, are Christians, live in European style, and provide the island with most of its schoolmasters and clerks. They are believed to have come from the north and to be partly of Caucasian descent. Trade is very largely in the hands of the Chinese, but before the present war there were very few Japanese in the population and they were distructed. PORTUGUESE AND DU%JH Celebes was discovered by the Portuguese in 1512, when they were monopolising the spice trade of the Moluccas. The Dutch settled at Makassar tn 1607, but did not establish themselves firmly until Admiral Cornelus Speelman defeated the local sultan in 1667. A little before this the Dutch had ousted the original Spanish settlers from Minahassa. They themselves lost control of the island for a time in the late eighteenth century, and trouble with various native sultans and chiefs continued until as late as 1911. Piracy, head-hunting and opium-smoking have been effectively suppressed for many years past.

The coastal regions produce large quantities of coffee, copra and kapok Sor export, with ebony, rattan rubber, gums and other commodities, but

minerals are negligible. Makassar is a very important centre of both export and import trade for the Moluccas, Dutch New Guinea and the lesser Sunda Islands. Manado, the port of Minahassa, carries on an independent trade with China and elsewhere. The total population in 1930 was 4,230,000. Of late years the East Indies Government has been endeavouring with some success to settle people from the overcrowded island of Java.

The only moderately good harbours in Celebes are at Makassar and at Manado, and that at Makassar is mainly artificial. Much of the coastline is fringed with dangerous coral reefs.