Show New Y York Minute Minute Pacific islands worthless to any but their inhabitants and a few small-scale small traders until the I advent of the transpacific air 4 service but today essential havens for the giant steel and alloy clippers that roar through the sky from conti conti- nent to continent across the worlds world's widest ocean are causing geographers and statesmen sleepless sleepless' nights while their ownership is being be be- ing lug disputed Discovered many of ot them before the Invention of ot the sextant and chronometer so that their exact location lo Jo- cation was doubtful these small land masses in the watery Immensity ty have been relocated by modern methods Ownership of at the islands depends on who first claimed them Claims made on the basis of ot old observations are likely to have wrong locations given because of ot the crudity of the instruments used The problem now becomes one of determining determining determining deter deter- I mining just what islands were claimed for what nation Studies of ot old whale ship logbooks are arc supplying geographers with many wanted long-wanted clues to the discovery discovery discovery dis dis- dis- dis covery of these Pacific outposts Dr S. S Wittemore Boggs State department department depart- depart ti- ti ment geographer writing in the Geographical Geo Gel graphical Review cites a number of the difficulties encountered in this effort to determine just who discovered discovered discovered dis dis- dis- dis covered and claimed what wha t. t Early Mariners Made Errors Doctor Boggs says b by dead reckoning underestimated ed the distance from Peru to his Western Isles' Isles Solomon islands by 2000 miles Errors of 1000 miles in longitude were not uncommon m in inthe the Sixteenth century Today the pilot pilot pilot pi pi- pi- pi lot of a China Clipper must be able to hit an island only a mile mUe in diameter by use of navigating ing in in- Log books of whaling and trading ships diaries of captains and seamen seamen seamen sea sea- men town small newspapers and records of bonds deposited by miners miners min mm- ers of guano on the far of off Pacific islands are all being searched for evidence of discoveries and occupations t d which will make certain some 1 of the now nebulous claims to the tile islands once called American Poly Poly- nesia If Ill the sources are ever adequately adequate adequate- ly studied and reported on states Doctor Boggs an Han interesting and significant chapter in American history history history his his- tory will have been illuminated |