Evening star., 1941-01-05
German Oil Caches
Reported on Isles
Near Panama Canal
President Visited Area
In 1889; Colombia Permit:
Defense Survey by U. S.
By JOHN LEAR,

Associated Press Foreign Correspondent.
MEDELLIN, Colombia The first
actual working test of the Havana
agreement among the American re-
publics to cooperate in stopping
any foreign penetration of the
Western Hemisphere has been car
ried out successfully by the United
States and Colombia.
It concerns TWO little Colombian
islands which lie near the Panama
Canal and which are reported to
: be used by Germans as secret
storage points for fuel oil.
1t may eventually lead to the
islands use as an inter- American
defense base
President Stopped at Isles.
The story, kept secret by both
governments to avoid international
political repercussions, came to me
by letter from the islands-San
Andres Y Providencia-during Pres
ident Roosevelt's recent Caribbean
defense cruise. I have since con-
f1rmed it from an unquestionable
source and can report the facts
as these:
/. During his Caribbean cruise
of 1899, President Roosevelt stopped
at the islands unannounced. He did
not leave his ship. but 1t circled
offshore for several days
2. Sometime after that. two
United States youths in a sailing
yacht stopped by. staying little
while, and went home to write about
influential German-born Colom-
bians they said they had seen, and
storage points they said those Ger
man-Colombians had for fuel oil
smuggled into the islands in small
boats. Islanders I have talked to
have confirmed that the German
Colombians are there. that they are
influential, and that fuel oil is
being smuggled.
8. A few weeks before President
Roosevelt's 1910 Caribbean cruise
a ship of the United States Navy
and a United States warplane came
to the islands and stayed quite a
while. They surveyed the islands
from the sea and from the air,
finishing up about a week before the
recent hurricane which fattened a
number of the islands homes.
Studied for Defense Base.
The surveyors told the islanders
they were studying the islands
value as a possible defense base.
One letter that came to me said
that a site for a base actually had
been chosen and that the letter
writer expected he would have to
move his home
The source which confirmed the
fact of the survey did not deny that
a site had been picked for possible
base. But he expressed doubt
whether a base would be established
Fe pointed out that the islands are
far inside the present Caribbean de-
fense circle, which begins at Cuba
and swings over Puerto Rico to
Trinidad. He observed further that
the islands are so small and SO
near the Canal-218 mileS-that they
could be secondary defenses at best
But the survey has been made,
with Colombia's full cooperation
and if a base should be needed, it
would not take long to put one there
Meanwhile. the data the two re-
publics have obtained about condi-
tions on the islands, plus the ma
tives' knowledge of the possibility of
a base. are not deemed encouraging
to whatever activities Nazis may be
carrying on there.
People Are PredOminantly Negro.
The people of the islands. pre-
dominantly Negro, have two strong
ties of friendship with the United
States in addition to the bond of
sympathy which now exists between
the States" and the Colombian Re
public, OF which the islands are a
part. First, they speak English
rather than Spanish. Second, they
sell great amounts of their coconuts
and tropical fruit crops to the area
around the Panama Canal.
Their English tongue is an his
toric anomoly, for San Andres y
Providencia in the 18th and 18th
centuries were Spanish fortresseS
guarding the mineral wealth that
flowed from Peru and Mexico across
the Isthmus of Panama. The old
towers still stand on Santa Cata-
lima. the dot of land which lies Is
miles northwest of Providencia.
Providencia itself is round, 9 miles
in circumference. protected on all
sides by reefs. Its mountainous GEN.
ter is surrounded by narrow circle
of level beach.
Fifty-one miles to the southwest
is San Andres, narrow finger of
Land 9 miles long, pointing roughly
north and south. On the west its
rocky coast drops straight down into
8 fathoms of water. One the east
it is shielded by two sharp reefs
which overlap so that boats can en-
ter safely only in one channel three
fourths of mile wide. The island
is so fiat it cannot be seen on clear
days from a key IS miles distant.
AS an airfeld it would be well-nigh
perfect.