In Funafuti

Americans Move on in Pacific

IT was announced on April 25 that American forces, “some time ago,” occupied Funafuti, in the Ellice Islands.

From the point of view of shipping, Funafuti is about the best of Ellice coral lagoon islands. It is in a handy position —5OO miles north of Suva, 500 miles south of Tarawa, and about 1,000 miles east of Guadalcanal.

About the same time—late in April— American planes twice raided Japanese establishments on the islands of Nauru and Tarawa—both on the equator, north east of Guadalcanal.

There was a small British community on Tarawa, which got away south, to Fiji, about March, 1942. The Japs had not then occupied the island, although they were at Butaritari and Abaiang, and had visited Tarawa.

All Europeans were evacuated from Nauru in mid-1942. The Australian Ad ministrator, Lieut.-Colonel Chalmers, and a couple of other officials, remained be hind, at their own wish, to care for the natives; and it is presumed they now are prisoners in Japanese hands. Nauru was bombarded by a German raider in Decem ber, 1940, but continued to produce phosphate until the outbreak of the Jap war.