Yap, Saipan and Korror
p. 74 · Read in the full issue
Spain Seeks North Pacific
Stations
Yap, Saipan and Korror Mentioned
A SPANISH claim to three North Pacific coaling stations in Micro nesia is put forward in a recent issue of the Spanish official magazine, ‘Africa’, originally founded by General Franco.
Senor Emilio Pastor Santos, president and founder of the Hispanic Philippine Brotherhood and counsellor of the Philip pines Legation in Madrid, has, according to the magazine, recommended that Spain should open negotiations with the United States with a view to securing possession of three coaling stations in the Mariana, Palau and Caroline Islands, about 1,000 miles north of New Guinea.
Senor Santos claimed that Spanish rights were based on discoveries by Spanish navigators in the 16th century and on the protocol of a treaty con cluded between Germany and Spain at Rome in 1885, and at Madrid in 1899.
He suggested the coaling stations should be at Yap (Carolines), Korror (Palau), and Saipan (Marianas).
As these are three of the best ports in the Archipelagoes, it is unlikely that the United States (in formal possession of the Caroline, Marshall and Mariana Islands since World War II) will agree.
Spain discovered and colonised these Island groups: sold some of them to Germany in 1885; and disposed of the remainder to Germany after being de feated by America in the Spanish- American War. Japan took them from Germany in World War I; and America took them from Japan in World War 11.