The fisheries survey covered the following islands: 



Marianas Carolines liar shall s 



Saipan Palau, including Kayangel , Eniwetok 

 Tinian Truk Kwajalein 



Rota Kapingamarangi Ailinglaplap 



Guam Nukuoro Jaluit 



Ponape Likiep 



Kusiae Majuro 



Geography - The relative positions of the three island groups are 

 shown on the general chart (figure 1). Mindinao in the Philippines 

 is about 500 miles west of the Palau Islands (Western Carolines). 

 Pearl Harbor is 200 miles northeast of Eniwetok (Northern Carolines). 



The total land area is 902.5 square miles, roughly three-fourths 

 the area of Rhode Island, scattered over an expanse of the Pacific 

 Ocean nearly the size of the United States. 



For practical purposes, islands may be classified as high or low. 

 The high islands (figure 2) are few, of volcanic origin, and located 

 in the Marianas (Saipan, Tinian, Rota, Guam) and Carolinas (Palaus, 

 Truk Group, Ponape, Kusiae). Low islands, including all the atolls, 

 are of coral (figure 3) with maximum elevations usually less than 

 10 feet above mean high water (Eniwetok, Kwajalein in the Marshall s, 

 Kapingamarangi and Kyangel in the Carolines). 



Population . -As of the summer of 1946, the native population in 

 the ex-mandate was 73,132, of which 22,783 were on Guam. Racially, 

 the general term for these people is Micronesians . The main racial 

 subdivisions are Chamorros and Kanakas, with admixtures of Melanesians 

 and, of course, some infiltration of Spanish, German, Japanese, Chinese 

 and American blood. Regardless of race, it is necessary to emphasize 

 that the area has been influenced by contact with western culture 

 since the seventeenth century, and the people are by no means simple 

 savages. As in the United States, the degree of native progress is 

 not uniform throughout the area. The people of Guam, who have been 

 under American administration since the Spanish-American War, have 

 profited by opportunities not available to inhabitants of seldom- 

 visited Kapingamarangi. But barring language difficulties, native 

 aptitudes for learning to be mechanics, plumbers, electricians or 

 tradesmen are not below what reasonably can be expected of a rela- 

 tively unmechanized culture. 



