Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/1018

 896 GERMAN EMPIRE

Bei'linhafen and Konstantiuhafen. The seat of Governineut i.s Herbertsliuhe in the Bismarck Archipelago. Estimated revenue and expenditure (for all the lands with the exception of the Sanioan Islands), 1911, 2,760,000 marks, including 1,208.000 marks of Imperial subvention.

2. Bismarck Archipelago. — In November, 1884, a German Protectorate was declared over the New Britain Archipelago and several adjacent groups of islands, then renamed the Bismarck Archipelago. The chief islands are Neu Pommern (formerly New Britain), Neu Mecklenburg (New Ireland), Neu Lauenburg (Duke of York Islands), and Neu Hanover, Admiralty, Anchorite, Commerson, Hermit, and other islands. Native population (1906) about 188,000 ; coloured non-native population was 396 (mostly Chinese). White population (1909) 474 (364 German). Wesleyan and Catholic missions are at work. In 1908, the total cultivated area was 13,464 hectares; chief products, copra, cotton, coffee, and rubber.

3. Solomon Islands. — Germany owns part of this group, including the islands of Bougainville and Buka, but Choiseul, Isabel or Mahaga, and various smaller islands to the east of Bougainville were transferred to Great Britain November 14, 1899. Missionary societies are at work ; their schools have about 120 pupils. Sandal wood and tortoiseshell are the chief commercial products. The German islands are placed under the officials of. Kaiser Wilhelm's Land.

4. The Caroline, Pelew [or Palau), and Marianne {or Ladrone) Islands — By treaty of February 12, 1899, these islands, with the exception of Guam (the largest of the Marianne Islands), ceded to the United State.s in 1898, passed on October 1, 1899, from Spanish to German possession for payment of 840,000Z. For administrative purposes the islands are divided into two groups : the Eastern Carolines, with Ponape as the seat of Government ; the Western Carolines, the Pelew Islands, and the Marianne Islands, with Yap as administrative centre. They all form part of the German New Guinea Protectorate. White population (1910): 320 (Germans 194). The native population (1911) was 55,000. Imports into East and West Carolines and the Pelew and Marianne Islands (1910), 1,057,616 marks; exports, 1,664,553 marks (mostly copra).

The Carolines consist of about 500 coral islets, Ponape having about 2,000 inhabitants. Yap 7,155, and Kusai 400. The population is mainly of Malay origin, with some Chinese and Japanese. The chief export is copra. The Pelew (Palau) Islands, to the west of the Carolines, have (1904)3,101 inhabitants ; they are about 26 in number, mostly coral, many of them uninhabited ; the largest is Babelthuap, which contains the bulk of the population. The German Marianne Islands, to the north of Pelew, have (1904), 2,646 inhabitants; their northern group is actively volcanic and uninhabited.

5. Marshall Islands. — The Marshall Islands, consisting of two chains or rows of lagoon islands (several uninhabited), known respectively as Ratack (with thirteen islands) and Ralick (with eleven islands), have belonged to Germany since 1885. European population in 1910, 179 (91 German). Other population, estimated, 15,000. The administration was taken over from the Jaluit Company by the German Colonial authorities on April 1, 1906. Since then the Marshall Islands have formed a district (Bezirk) under the New- Guinea government. The chief island and seat of the German Imperial Commissioner is Jaluit ; most populous island Majeru, 2,600 inhabitants. Protestant (American) and Catholic missions are at work. There are planta- tions of coco-palm (1,275 hectares). Imports in 1910, 1,296,958 marks ;