The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-02-22
GERMAN ISLANDS IN PACIFIC NETGHBORS
 OF UNITED STATES

The German islands in the North Pacific of which so much is being said at the present time, are ex- tremely near neighbors of the United States. A lecture on the commercial geogra aphy of the Pacific just deliver ed in the Educational Department of the National City Bank of New York shows that the three groups of Ger man islands in the North Pacific, the Carolinas, the Ladrones and the Mar shall Islands, numbering over 600 islands islets, and uninhabited rocks, stretch from the eastern frontage of the Philippines to within a compara- lively short distance of our Hawaiian Islands, with our own islands of Guam, Wake and Midway lying at the immediate north and our tiny island of Tutuila with the finest harbor in the Pacific lying at the immediate south
 The Caroline and Ladrone Islands, said the lecturer, were bought by Ger many from Spain 1899 for the sum of s4,O00.000, the only island in the two groups which was not passed over to Germany having been our island of Guam, of which the United States had taken possession in the preceding year, during cur war with Spain. The Caroline group Is so closely identified graphically. with the Philippines that they were for many years called the New Philip pine" Islands, and the westernmost of the group lies only about 500 miles off the eastern frontage of our Philip pine Islands. In the Ladrone group. also lying comparatively near to our Philippine Islands ali of the islands iv,o he island of Guam, was passed over to Germany by Spain in the sale of 1899 already noted. While Guam is the largest single island in the group, the others, many of which are inhabited and important commercially, lie with in a cOmp paratively few rrrf7es of Guam. The Marshall group which lies cast of the Caroline and Ladrone groups but really forms part of the great chain of islands stretching from the Philippines toward our Hawaiian group lies about 300 miles south Of our Wake Island, 800 miles south of our Midway Island, about 750 miles, north of our island of Tutuila, and extends eastward to within about 2 1000 miles of our Hawaiian group Thus the group of German islands in the North Pacific Is in fact surround ed by the American flag with our Philippines on the west Guam, Wake and Midway at the north. Tutuila at the south, and our Hawaiian group at the east
 The population of the three groups, the CaroIines the Jadrone and the Marshall, is about 75,000 and the commerce about s3.O00,000 per an- mum, the exports being chiefly copra f coffee, rice, sugar, tobacco and indigo are produced by the natives for do- mestic use. The currency used Is largely of shells.
 One extremely interesting feature of the Marshall and Ladrone groups is found in the megaIithfc monu- ments the work of a prehistoric pop ulation which apparently existed in much greater numbers than at pres ent, the reduced population at present being due in part at least to the fact that these islands are slowly subsid- ing, and the areas remaining above the water being steadily but slowly reduced. These cyc1opeian structures include in some cases rows of evenly placed pillars with bowl shaped capi- tals, and in other islands great stone structures forming a massive quad rangle 200 feet on each side with in ner courts and raised platforms, the stone walls being from 20 to 40 feet in height and from 8 to IS feet in
 thickness, made in many cases of stone which must have been brought
 by boats or rafts a distance of 30
 miles There are also numerous
 ancient canals from 30 to 100 feet wide, especially in certain islands of
 the Caroline group, giving to the is- lands in which they exist the title
 of the Pacific Venice''
 The number of American islands
 in the area in question, including the Philippines at the west, Guam, Wake and Midway at the north, Tutuila at the south. and the Hawaiian group on the east, is nearly three times as many as the 500 odd comprising the German group, since the number of
 islands, tslets and uninhabited rocks , in our Philippine group alone num- bers 1850, which with the addition of the small islands and islets of the Hawaiian group would bring the total to approximately three times as many as the German group, while the pop ulation of our islands in the circle surrounding this German group az | gregate approximately ten millions, and having a commerce of S300,0oe,- i 900 per annum. three-fourtns of 7 hi I1