"Since last fell a French gunboat was seen about the island and caused us to wonder what was being that he discovered not only "he Paracels but the Pratas and Sinnan Islands in 1917, from which he brought home samples of rock phosphate, He was scheduled to return to the islands today by plane—Domei, French Spokesman interviewed shai, July 5.
Interviewed: by Reuter on the subject of reports published by foreign press agencies regarding the presence of \Annamite policemen in the Paracel Islands, a spokesman of the French (Embassy stated today that actual facts did not justify all the comment made in this connection, The whole question, he declared, concerned but a small group of coral islets, most of which were wuder ware at high tide, These islets had been part of the Empire of Annam ever since 1816, As a measure of security, the spokesman asserted, the French Government had established there a lighthouse and a meteorological station, under the protection of 20 to 30 Annamite policemen, Tt should be made clear, he added, that this measure, the purpose of which was o aid international navigation and fishing in a (region considered extremely dangerous on account of frequent tempests, was in no way connected with the Island of Hainan, over which France had never claimed any protectorate whatsoever,—Reuter,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.