Years Ago

The Marshalls 50

Administered by Five German Officials

From Our Own Correspondent APIA (Samoa), December 6.

THE German press in November last made reference to the 50th anni versary of the hoisting of the German flag in the Marshall Islands and published reminiscences of the former Governor of New Guinea, Dr. A. Hahl, The Marshall Islands in 1906 were placed under the Administration of German New Guinea.

Nowadays, with radio and aeroplanes, it is much easier for the Japanese Adminis tration to govern the far flung atolls of the group than it was for the Germans 50 years ago. The German Administration for the whole of the 50 islands consisted of only five white officials: the Deputy Administrator, his secretary, a police official, the Government Medical Officer and a hospital orderly. At Jaluit, seat of the German Administration, there were only two native policemen.

It was a difficult task to induce the can nibals of the group to submit peacefully to European rule. To supply proof of their submission they were required to build roads through their district. Dr. Hahl tells that in some villages when the men refused to perform their tasks of road building the women came out in support of the

Government. They gave as a reason that the Government prevented the former con tinuous wars, when children and women were killed and always eaten first. And so the men agreed to build the roads.