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Tills NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph from Mrs. Rosamond DoJson Rhone 



A SOUTH SEA KING AND HIS LOYAL SUBJECTS 



Before Nauru fell to Germany, it knew no white rulers, but was governed by its own 

 immemorial laws, enforced by its own chiefs. King Aweida, he of the top hat, is sur- 

 rounded by his subjects. 



looks down from the wall today where 

 Kaiser Wilhelm used to scowl behind his 

 mustache. 



A DOG REVEALS HIDDEN RADIO EQUIPMENT 



An Australian wireless staff took over 

 the plant on the hilltop and adopted a little 

 dog left over from the German occupa- 

 tion. Whenever the members approached 

 a certain pile of coral blocks on the rocky 

 hill near the station the dog became ex- 

 cited, barking and attempting to dig, as if 

 something were hidden beneath it. Upon 

 investigation they uncovered the mouth 

 of a natural shaft in the coral, at the foot 

 of which caves opened. In one of these 

 they discovered a quantity of material be- 

 longing to the wireless plant, which had 

 been secreted by the Germans. The dog- 

 was named "Radio." 



The German impress on the South 

 Seas is not great. They left some fine 

 wireless stations, some fine government 

 residences, some botanical gardens ; they 

 left good roads. They left no colonies to 

 speak of and their language made no 

 impression. 



One New Guinea governor stated that 

 if during his tenure of office he was suc- 



cessful in teaching the natives to speak 

 good German instead of English he would 

 be doing good work, but this failed and 

 all officials were obliged to give orders in 

 pidgin English. 



The German flag which was hauled 

 down on Nauru was shown to me at 

 Ocean Island spread out upon the ve- 

 randa of the British residency by the 

 commissioner of the Gilbert and Ellice 

 Colony, to which the island belongs. He 

 said (this was during the war) : "I 

 wonder if this flag will ever again float 

 in the Pacific." 



NAURU UNDER BRITISH CONTROL 



Nauru has about twelve hundred na- 

 tives. Early in 1918 the chiefs, who had 

 been under German rule for twenty- 

 eight years before the war and under 

 British rule pending the war, came to the 

 administrator and asked him to send a 

 petition to King George the Fifth to keep 

 the island and not let it be returned to 

 Germany. 



The administrator thereupon sum- 

 moned all the natives, men and women, 

 to appear before him and declare them- 

 selves British or German subjects. This 



