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Show Oil MDS fid HER 10 GLORY Formal Payment for and Transfer of New Possessions Posses-sions Concluded. WASHINGTON, March 31. The final act of more than fifty years' effort to bring the Banish West Indies under the American flag was completed with formal for-mal ceremonies at the state department today wnen Danish Minister Brim was handed a treasury warrant for $2n,0u0,-I $2n,0u0,-I O'JO, the purchase price, and wireless messages were 6ent to the American and Danish authorities at the islands to lower the Danish flag and raise the Stars and Stripes. At noon today the new possessions passed definitely and finally under the authority or" tho United States. I "Bv giving you this warrant," Secretary Lansing said, as he handed the paper to the minister, "I will save ! you the trouble of transporting forty-eight forty-eight tons of gold. The value of this paper in coin would be equivalent to that weight." With the formal transfer the islands became known as the Virgin islands of the United States, a title chosen by the natives. In all there are fifty islands, only three large enough to be of importance. St. Thomas is the most important and has one of the finest harbors in the West Indies, which will be transformed into a strong naval base for the protection protec-tion of the Panama eanal. St, Croix and St. John are the other two large islands. Hoar Admiral James H. Oliver, chief of naval intelligence at the navy department, de-partment, is en route to St. Thomas to assume the duty of governor. He will serve until a permanent government has been determined upon by congress. Locnl laws will be administered until congress has acted. |