Future Of 23 Atolls

Let USA Have Them! —Silly Talk About a "Dispute"

NEWSPAPERS of May 12 prominently displayed a report that Britain, United States and New Zealand were squabbling over the possession of at least 23 islands of “potential military value” in the South Pacific.

It was said that the countries were “negotiating secretly to settle the dispute before it comes to the attention of UNO.”

Then the learned commentators pro ceeded to give the names of the “23 islands”. Here they are:— Nukufelau, Funafuti, Nukulaelae —atolls in the commercially unimportant Ellice Group.

Mackean, Burnie, Phoenix, Gardner, Hull and Sydney —small atolls of the Phoenix Group, so unimportant and use less that they were completely unin habited until very recent years, when 2,000 surplus people from the over crowded Gilberts were transferred to them.

Atafu, Nukunono, and Fakaofo —the three small, unimportant atolls of the tiny Tokelau or Union Group. For con venience, they were taken from the Gil bert and Ellice Colony in 1926 and at tached to the Administration of Western Samoa (New Zealand).

Danger, Rakahanga, Manihiki and Pen rhyn—small and almost valueless atolls of the Northern Cook group, a depen dency of New Zealand.

Malden, Starbuck, Caroline, Vostock, Flint, Carondelet, Christmas— small un inhabited, economically worthless atolls, lying just south of the equator. They are usuallv regarded as being within the Gilbert and Ellice (British) administra tion. Some of them have been held on lease by coconut-growing and fertiliser gathering companies.

IP a line were drawn right around all those atolls, it would be found to cover an almost exact rectangle, 40 degrees long and 10 degrees wide, lying Inst south of the equator. If every one of the atolls named, within the rectangle,