Marshalls And
p. 11 · Read in the full issue
Carolines
New Industries :: 100,000 Japanese There
A JAPANESE traveller, recently in Sydney, supplied some interesting information about the settlement and development of the Caroline and Marshall Islands—details of which are so carefully withheld by the Govern ment of Japan.
There are now 100,000 Japanese set tled in the three groups (Marshalls, Carolines and Marianas) which comprise the Mandate. The latest figure obtained previously (about 1937) was 60,000.
The Japanese have found gold on some of the islands. It is not rich, nor extensive; but it is good enough to form the basis of a small, flourishing indus try.
The Japanese also have found con siderable deposits of phosphate, which are being increasingly worked; and phosphate to the amount of 500,000 tons per annum is being exported.
The contrast between Japan and Aus tralia, as mandatories, is very marked.
Japan has settled 100,000 people in her territory, and has energetically devel oped new industries there, especially sugar-growing.
In the Mandated Territory of New Guinea, however —which is far bigger and richer than the Marshall and Caro line Group—Australia has settled less
than 5,000 people, and has developed no permanent agricultural enterprise—only the gold-mining industry, which has a limited life.