To the Editor of the "Nowru-Cha Dany News"
Sm—Having read the recent correspondence "in your columns in regard to the above reef (it can hardly be described as an Island), 1 feel with "Lieutenant of the Navy" that Admiral Woo's explanation is a. very weak one. It is agreed that your Hongkong correspondent, who describes Pratas as "Islands" and part of an "Archipelago," is not quite con~ versant with his subject, so probably. a little description and history of Pratas may not be out of place.
Pratas Reet is a coral Barrier of circular form inclosing lagoon with general depths of from five to ten fathoms, thickly studded with coral Knolls round its margin with a conspicuous one called "Lee Cay" com-Daratively near the middle. The reet {640 miles in circumference and from one to two miles in breadth. SE. and North sides are just dry at L. W. Spring tides and steep loo. The west side forms a sunken barrier across which are two channels leading into the Lagoon, one on each side of the Island.' The Island is a spit of sand 1% miles in length and ¥% mile in breadth, of horse shoe shape, enclosing a shallow inlet on the West side. Chinese fishman come here in the early part of the year and there small settlement on the NE. end of the Island. A. lighthouse "and a wireless meteorological nis situated on the SE. end. The Island only 40 feet high, taking the height to the top of its tallest tree, and ix chiefly covered with scrubbly brushwood.
"The Reet lies in the Hongkong-Manila route' and is especially dangerous during the N.E. monsoon, when strong gales and thick cloudy weather prevails for weeks at a time obscuring all view of the Reef: during clear weather the reets are only visible from a distance of five to six miles. As during the monsoon most of the ships approach from an EEly direction most of the wrecks seem to occur on that side and two prominent ones are quite clearly visible. Just recently. the Ttalian freighter Cot di Lana, en route from Tsingtao to Singapore struck on the N.W. side, but she was salved and was undergoing repairs {in the Hongkong Whampao Dock in uly, 1984 The Pratas has a grim story in connection with its lighthouse which ill, T think, bear retelling. In 1011 after the Revolution, Pratas, which was of of no practical use as a Colony, was seized upon as one of China's possessions that should be protected' against foreign aggression, 30 a Naval guard was duly despatch-there as a garrison.
Tt might be mentioned here that the one-time deposits of guano left by the innumerable sea birds that inhabited the Island. during the breeding season had already been removed by the Japanese and being. bare of vegetation and scanty in rainfall was a death traps as habita~ tion, Owing to the dangerous situation of the Island which was right in the track of the typhoons and the absolute {indifference of the Chinese Government to the appeals of the shipping Dublic for a lighthouse and a wireless station for meteorological reports, the Hongkong Government decided to erect a station to broadcast warnings to shipping of typhoons, ete. cordingly a British Man-of-War Was despatched to survey and report onthe Island. This was some years after the guard had been left there
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.