A £20,000 Base for £200!

DURING the Pacific War, Ameri can forces established a LORAN radio station (Long Range Navigation) on Atafu atoll, northern most of the Tokelaus.

After the war, the station was abandoned. The buildings with their thousands of pounds worth of radio equipment, power generators, etc., were battened up, and local native watchmen were delegated to police the area—which they did very effectively for several years, as the equipment gradually deteriorated.

Why it was allowed to remain thus only the New Zealand Government and American authorities can say— but most of the gear was probably in very sorry condition when finally dismantled by a government team from Western Samoa in 1951.

Now, in the latest Annual Report on the Tokelaus, there is an item credited to those islands —£200 for sale of LORAN base equipment.

This would suggest that the Ameri can Government finally gave the base to the Tokelau people.

The base was probably worth £20,000 when the Americans switched off the transmitters and closed the

doors in about 1947.-

Jps.