The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1902-01-12

gn.c.sI c,Yr,s2ond-nce OF The Sunday Republic.
Singapore. Dec. 5-New oil fields have
been rccrntIy opened W. ia Dutch Borneo.
md q largo number or tho English capt
tsilsts Of the Far East are Interested III
them. i;auy are investing IL the different
plantations Ia British NolIh Bornoo. ana
others are sending ont rrnsIe et"rs TO look
Up gold. coal. iron and diamond mines IN
different parts Of that great island. II VIII
not ba long before America viii he doing
the same. Some NJ tre s~hr'wicst of our
fnanciers are watching the lower parts OF
our Philippine Islands. Prospecting is
going on IA Nindlrao and in the Island Of
Palawau. ana the value Of the pearl fisher
les and other possessions Of the Sultan of
Jolo arc being carefully weighed.
From Bongao. Bornco Is
Our Next Door Neighbor.
From our military station on Rongao. in
tho SuIu archipelago. it ls but Il step TO
Eorneo, and you con- thoT" almost hear the
guns which are fred at Saudakan, the
capital OF British North Borneu. The dis
tance IS only forty miles and the sound
carries easily over tic water. our soldiers,
I'm fact. are within forty miles of Rorneo,
and there are regular ships from .Iolu to
S~auiakau. such "a steamer was In port
while ! Vas in .In'c, ana less than a days
ride upon ~ w0.li have landed mo there.
: Part - Eolue" belongs TO the Sultan Of
SUlu. and 8s the Sultan is now an Ameri-
can either. his possessions there may he
called American. although they in reality
arc tho property Of tthr Elitish. having
been leased bv the Sultan - The North
Borneo Company.
This company pays ~s0mevkere between
5000 and $1,000 a year for t'am on a per-
-Aa.rral lrDzO II. t-rss ..Fla- lguis rhrOllrh
n concession from the Sultan of RTunCi.
the ruler Of a native state adjoining its
possessions IN North BGrneo, and It has in
both leases a rrincirality here which might
have belonged either {" tho Germans or the
United States had we sooner awakened
to a greed for foreign territory.
Few Foreigners Own Property
on Island of .JoIo.
While I was I'm Jolo I met a young Ger
man named Shuck. who has a big estate
not far from that town. He il the only
foreigner outside Uncle Sam who owns any
property on the Island of Jolo, and this
estate was granted to his father by the
Sultan. The elder Shuck was a German
trader, who imported all sorts OF things for
tho old Sultan, the father Of The man now
on the throne. The old Sultan gave Shuck
l. commission to sell his North Borneo prop
erty for him, and Shuclt offered it to Prince
Bismarck. The Germans were not then
anxious after foreign territory. I believe
they had their hands full with the French
war and other European questions. At any
rate Bismarck wrote SnuCk that Germany
did not want the property. Shuck reported
this to the Sultan. and the Sultan angriiy
told him that he had not managed the bust
ness as well as he should. Shuck grew
angry In turn and told him he could take
It back and handle It himself, and the re-
suit was that the Sultan a year or 80 later
leased the territory to the British North
Borneo Company for $500 a year. The
company gives a similar tribute to the
Sultan Of Brunei. but its total
Of this kind are only a little over $1,000
per year.
Rritich No-+L po IL