The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-05-13
PACIFIC ISLANDS ARE OLD POINTS
 OF DISCUSSION

<AHiVA ISdl oppOSlC1On to Copd4ieS- mandatories in the Far East is not confined to the Island of Tap, but, as indicated on Feb. 21. in the note of former Secretary of State Colby to the League of Nations, to all of the islands in the Pacific Ocean north of Sthe equator which formerly belonged to Germany. These gems of the Oriental seas,' of which Yap is one, aggregate 127 and are comprised in four groups, namely the Carolines with 62, the Marshall with g. the Marianne Cor Ladrone) with 25 and the Pelew with eight. They form kind of stratgetic semi-circle around the Philippines.
 While chief interest in the discus SionS of the Allied Communications Conference, which began in Wash intgon on Oct. 8, 1920, to determine the allocation Of these islands. has centered in Ya.p by reason of it's i'm portance as a cable station, the prob lem of Tap is overshadowed by the larger international aspect of the con- trol of all the 127 islands. The con- tention of the United States depart- ment of state has been that Yap should be "internationalized.' The Allied Communications Conference, attended by representatives of the five Allied powers. becoming dead locked in February, 1921, the ques- fions were referred to the Foreign Relations Committee of the United
 
 ton of the conference has not been announced.
 Opposition to Japan's mandate over Yap, expressed by MT. Colby to the President and members of the Council of the League of Nations, in cluded the declaration that Yap con- stituted an indispensable part of any scheme or practical arrangement of cable com munication i'll the Pacific and that it's free and unhampered use r l T1o.C by any one power" Under the man daftcry, agreed to by France and Eng land, full power of administration and legislation" over Yap was vested in the Tokio government and Tap was to be considered ''an integral part of the Empire of Japan" Another objection by the United States is that is seen in the Ya,p situation the pos sibility of a foreign nation exercising censorship over its communications to Europe and Asia.
 The fact that the former German operated cable from Shanghai. China which passes through Tap, was taken over by Japan and it's Oriental ter occasion for the American protest Control over Yap by Japan was granted by the Paris peace confer ence on May 7, 1919, when it was decided that the mandate for the Pacific islands north of the equator
 
 should be awarded to the Tokio gov ernment and the mandate for those south of the equator to Australia and New Zealand.
 It is not generally known that the Island of Yap was originally called Guap Or WaP, q cognomen given by Spanish navigators. who discovered il in the 18th century. Until 8S5 ' ap, like all the other of the Carolines. was owned by Spain. Germany at this time cast covetous eyes upon Yap, realizing that it was well situat ed for communication with Japan, China, the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea and that it was a convenient station on the trans-Paoffc route via Honolulu to San Francisco.
 Suiting action to desire. the Ger man gunboat Iltis, in that year, rais- other islands. It created considerable excitement in Madrid and an appeal was made to the Vatican with the result that the Pope decided in favor of Spanish sovereignty: Fourteen years later, after the Spanish lines, including Yap and the Pelew and all of the Marianne (L4adrone) Islands except Guam,.< to Germany for s4,2OO,Oo0. The United States had acquired Guam from Spain in 1898. It is 360 miles from Tap.
 The importance of Tap and Guam as cable bases is shown by the fact that today an all-American cable runs from San Francisco via Honolulu Guam and Manila to Shanghai, while from Guam another cable. the south ern part under American control, the northern under Japanese goes direct to Yokahoma. The former German cable runs from Guam to Tap whence one line goes on to Shanghai, and another from Tap to Menado, in the Dutch East Indies. The Yap-Guanl cable, it is said. was of great service to Americans as it gave them an all formative to The Guam-Manila cable for communication with China.
 When the great war began, Japan csc naval forces seized the Ladrone, PeleW and Caroline Islands, including Yap, and held them until Japan was accepting the Treaty of Versailles renounced her cables in the Far East in favor of the Allied and associated powers and the final aFlocation of them among the powers is the object of the International Communications Conference which is to be resumed in Washington at an early date.
 Aside from its tactical advantage in the Pacific, the island which has caused such an international diplo- matic stir, is not much of a posses sion. It has a population of 1000 which .r.any years ago poked its nose out of the oceans depths, Tap at in tervals since, has been visited by earthquakes and other upheavals of nature. The latest seismic disturb ance was in December. 1920. when, severe shocks were felt for three or four days.
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