(he said) are making great progress in the fishing industry, this being one of the richest fishing-grounds in the world. Many of them, in small vessels of 30 to 40 tons, go south to the Arafura Sea, between Australia and New Guinea, to get pearl shell ud pearls in waters 20 o 40 fathoms deep. These venturers are supplying two-thirds of the whole world's demand.
All primary schools in the islands for teaching the natives have Japanese teachers. AN instruction in them is given in the Japanese language. The native children, therefore, all speak Japanese. I did not once hear a native speaking in his own language to a Japanese. Before long Japanese only will be spoken in the islands.
In this and other respects, conditions are quite different from what has taken place in Formosa. The men of the Chamuro tribe, on Saipan, for example, have started a movement to obtain Japanese nationality for themselves. Some of them have appealed to the Japanese officials to be allowed to enlist in the Japanese army.
The first Japánese to emigrate to the islands were from Okinawa Islands, which are quite hot. They were sent by the South Seas Development Ca. because it was thought that they would have the best chance to endure the heat of the new island territories.
Nowadays, however, people even from the Tohoku districts in northern Japan, Where it is cold enough in winter, are being sent to the islands, and they seem to be getting on well. This indicates that Japanese of north or south are equally adaptable to new climates, which will be of great advantage to them in emigrating to and developing other lands.
Palao is still in process of development In the jungle, where crocodiles lurk in the streams, the Japanese colonists are hard at work cutting down trees and building huts, rather in danger of their lives, for the purpose of getting at the resources of the place. I asked some of them if they do not want to return to Japan. Younger ones showed a desire to visit their homeland again.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.