The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-04-23
By HARRY ". FRANTZ United Press Staff COFFospondent)

Limited Press Staff COrreSp0ndent)
 Washington, (UP)-GovernTnent o6acials here refrain from any cate- gorical statement in regard to the eventual political status of the formerly Japanese inandated islands in the Pacific, but current comment indicates that the United States is likely in one form or an- other to retain effective control of those groups.
 The Marshall, Caroline and Mariana archipelagoS, under Jap. anese mandate between World War I and World War II, have very complicated political and legal his- tory under international law, con fused by secret understandings of Spain- Germany in the period of the Spanish American War, and Britain and France with Japan prior to United States entry into the first world war.
 The three groups embrace about 1,400 islands and reefs, with total land area estimated at only 02o miles, but they cover an immense expanSe of the Pacific, extending about 2,6O0 miles east and west and l,200 miles north and south, with the MartanaS ct Q northerly peak. Population in io3e was l2l 900, of whom 60 per cent were Japanese.
 Vital Co Philippines
 The groups lie athwart the main strategical pathways from Hawaii to the Pacific and their control is admittedly vital to the defense of the Philippine Islands. They were wrestling from Japan during the re- cent world war by an incalculable expenditure of American money and lives.
 Pacific experts point out that there are three different categories of former Japanese islands in the Pacific: those of which the prewar JapaneSe sovereignty was unclfal- lenged; those which were subjected to special understandings during World War II; and those which Japan held under mandate.
 Since the situation of the former Japanese mandated islands has moot aspects, three possible courses could be considered by the United States:
 (i) A do nothing" policy, which merely would continue the status quo until the political situation in the Pacific is more stable,
 @ Annexation.
 (Sl Submission of the islands to tenn.
 No final procedure in any direc- ton would be undertaken except on the authority of the President himself, and he undoubtedly would consult Congressional leaders be- fore action since the question of Pacific islands is highly controver. stal in Congress,
 Big ( Gave Mandate
 Contrary to the general impress sion, the mandate of Pacific Islands north of the Equator to Japan was made by authority of the Allied and AsSoclated Powers through the council of { (United States, United Kingdom, France and Italy). and not by the League of Nations. al- though Japan thereafter report ca to the League of Nations Man. date Commission.
 The provisions of the United Na- tlons Charter pertinent to the Jap- anese Pacific mandated islands are Artlcss 70 and To. The first pFo- vldes that the trusteeship shah apply, among other territories. to those now held under mandateD ana the second asserts that the terms of trusteashlp for each tarri- tory to be placed under trusteeship snal pc agreed by "the states di. Tectly concerned"
 m event of any international agreement concerning the former JapaneSe-mapdated islands the countries directly concerned = in the light of history-would be the United States, Great Britain. kranee. Italy and Japan. However' Italy and Japan excluded fhen. selves by defeat.
 Because of her powerful position n V. Y. and her exceptional In- lerest In the Pacific, Soviet Rus | could, tg aho chnae. intruae into ne central Pacific island settle- ]