Makatea Wrecked

German Raiders' Attacks on Phosphate Islands

From Our Own Correspondent NOUMEA, March 23.

FOLLOWING upon the destruction they wrought at the British phosphate island of Nauru. German raiders in December, 1940, smashed the port and phosphate installations at Makatea, the French phosphate island in the Tuamo tou archipelago, it is revealed by Dr. E. de Curton, of Tahiti, in a recent Fight ing French publication.

The doctor, who became Governor when French Oceania rallied to de Gaulle, in 1940, points out that in the first world war Australia and New Zealand drew largely on Makatea atoll for phos phate supplies. The Compagnie Fran caise des Phosphates de I’Oceanie had since installed up-to-date electric plant, a tramway system, giant crushers, rotary driers and “endless chain” loading facili ties, which the Germans in particular destroyed. Production had risen to nearly 200.000 tons annually, valued at over a million dollars.

The doctor writes forcibly of the strategic importance of the French archipelagos to the defence of the Panama route and the American-Aus tralian supply line. He admits that France did not realise the role that an American-British bloc against Japan might give her oceanic possessions. She did not feel directly interested in Pacific

defence problems and therefore kept only a tiny aero-naval force on the spot, and even that was dwindling.

He charges the Allies with having been just as negligent. The USA, in par ticular, he says, took no more pains to organise her Samoa base, and it was only in 1941 that work at Pago Pago was seriously undertaken. He emphasises the importance of French Oceania in rela tion to the protection of the Panama Canal.