NAURU, THE RICHEST ISLAND IN THE SOUTH SEAS 



569 



s i v e concrete pillars. 

 Then came the war! 

 How many stories of 

 fact and fiction contain 

 these words — then came 

 the war. 



"under two flags" 



After the Australian 

 navy had put an end to 

 the spectacular career of 

 the Bniden, it reached 

 out to strike the enemy 

 in other places. German 

 New Guinea was cap- 

 tured, and then a war- 

 ship was sent to Nauru. 

 The flag of the two- 

 headed eagle was hauled 

 down and the flag of the 

 Crosses of Saint George, 

 Saint Andrew, and Saint 

 Patrick was hoisted. 

 The German residents 

 agreed to submit to Brit- 

 ish control. Then the 

 warship steamed away. 

 It was no sooner out of 

 sight than the Germans, 

 who had thrown their 

 arms and ammunition 

 over the reef upon her 

 first appearance, broke 

 their parole and hoisted 

 their flag. 



The next day a Jap- 

 anese man-of-war, fresh 

 from conquest of the 

 Carolines and Ladrones, 

 was sighted by the look- 

 out on top of the wireless 

 mast. The British flag 

 was again hoisted and the warship steamed 

 past without calling. A few days later 

 the British flag was burned in a spectacu- 

 lar manner on the sports ground, after 

 which the governor ordered all British 

 subjects to go aboard a small cargo ship 

 for deportation to Ocean Island. 



These exiles, including women and 

 children, about forty in number, reached 

 Ocean Island the next day and were as- 

 signed homes with the company staff 

 there. Ocean Island had no wireless at 

 that time, so it was two months before 

 the news could be sent to Rabaul, in New 

 Guinea, the nearest point of military oc- 



Photograph from Mrs. Rosamond Dodson Rhone 



A BROWN-SKIN BEAU BRUMMELL 



The men of the Solomon Islands, rather than the women, are 

 clothed as "the lilies of the fields." They are particularly fond 

 of wearing the brilliantly colored hibiscus in their hair. 



cupation, and measures taken to turn the 

 tables upon the Germans. 



A ship was sent, with officers and sol- 

 diers and a machine-gun. It called first 

 at Ocean Island and took on board the 

 deportees, who were carried back to 

 Nauru. The Germans were arrested and 

 deported to Sydney, where they were in- 

 terned during the war and then sent to 

 Germany. Their native wives and half- 

 caste children remained on Nauru. 



An Australian garrison was left, pend- 

 ing the duration of the war. A British 

 administrator took the place of the Ger- 

 man governor, and King George the Fifth 



