"On approaching the Hongkong Government I was informed that there was no cerfuinty as to which country the island" belonged, and being thus reassured I began io exploi& it, I mined about a million tons of phosphate by the end of 1026, "After that France kept a watchful eve on Hsisha Island and sent warships there and declared that she had taken possession of Hsisha Island, together with the other Paracel Islands, But as the resi of Japanese protests the French claim was abandoned, "We have already established the Kaiyo Industrial Company on the Paracel Islands and having started a large enterprise on Hsisha Island since last October we decided to form a Kaiyo Phosphate Mining Company.
"At present there are on the island about 240 workers and there is a prospect of producing from 50 to 60 tons of rock phosphate every month after next year, Berlin July 5.
The French occupation of the Paracel Islands south of Hainan was discussed by the Paris correspondent of the "Berliner Tageblatt" this morning.
The correspondent declares that it appears that the Minister of Colonies, M. Georges Mandel, acted in this respect on his own initiative and responsibility and points out that the Quai d'Orsay is maintaining strict reserve, merely giving the assurance that the occupation is "not an occupation in ordinary sense of word"
The correspondent further draws attention to ihe fact that the Premier's Office has made no statement regarding the occupation. Circles close to the French Ministry of Colonies declared that France could "not tolerate" another power taking possession of these islands which command the Indo-Chinese coast and whose lagoons would make admirable bases for aeroplanes. The Quai d'Orsay points out that the Paracel Islands have been under French control for years and moreover that the occupation "which is actually not an occupation" has been effected principally with the object of "protecting the fisher folk on these island:
Trans-Ocean.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.