The Americans Have

Rehabilitated Guam

THE following article by Riley H. Allen of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, pub lished recently, tells us something of wdiat Guam is like to-day.

The Americans found Guam, after they fot back to it, in much the same condi ion as the Australians found New Guinea n 1945. It is a safe bet, however, that Suam has been rather more thoroughly •ehabilitated than has New Guinea. 1/fOST of the ‘‘economy” or business and .▼X livelihood of Guam is based on serving military needs.

The citizens and permanent local popu ation is estimated at about 28,500. This s out of a total of some 58,500 population. )ne man said to me, “We have 28,500 eople we rate as local residents. Of those, 8,000 serve the army, navy, air force, etc. ’he others run the local government.”

This, of course, is a humorous exaggera ion. There are a good many people arrying on independent businesses, and ot in government. Even so, Guam is to ay primarily a military base in the far r est Pacific—and justifiably and neces arily so.

It is estimated that the United States as spent in excess of $350,000,000 on ruam since the end of World War IL When Guam was taken from the apanese, the little city of Guam and lany of the towns on this small island f 226 square miles were wrecked.

As in the Philippines, to lick the Jap tiese was a grim task in which we had to se everything from high altitude bomb ig to bayonet slashing on the ground, ut they were licked—thoroughly licked, nd the Americans moved in to rehabili

tate harbours, wharves, the city of Agana and the towns and villages of hashed, slashed Guam.

UNCLE SAM is still spending millions on Guam. Some $60,000,000 is still ear marked for military construction of various kinds. Most of this has already been allocated for the work. The money is ready to be spent. The programme, which has continued almost without cessa tion since the defeat of the Japanese in World War 11, moves right along.

Some of this work is classed as “a mili tary secret” though everybody on Guam and presumably the theoretical enemy knows it. But it’s no secret that the mili tary (this term including navy, army, air force) is putting a good deal of stuff underground.

The navy-army-air force total repre sents so large a proportion of the popu lation of around 60,000 that the business of the island preponderantly is based on and caters to the military.

That is partly because the island of Guam has been governed by the US navy for a half century, and partly be cause the Guamanians have an imme diate, steady, dependable ‘‘cash market” in the military forces.

On Guam one hears, from some Americans, repeated suggestions that the Guamanians should ‘‘return to agricul ture.” That is superficially plausible. But actually it is completely unrealistic.

People everywhere will do the sort of work which they find most profitable and easiest to do. If it is also congenial, so much the better.

On Guam, the big military construc tion has for the past five years given most of the able-bodied Guamanians plenty of work.

And the large population massing here from the outside—military forces, civilian war workers by the thousand, has made an immediate, flourishing opportunity for

shops, stores, gasoline stations, res taurants, bars and the like.

Yet, some agricultural and livestock ex perimental work is being done with really glowing promise of expansion and success.