German Marshall

It is twenty-five years since the Marshall Islands became a German property (says a writer in “Mitteilungen der Firma” Paul Kohl, November 1910).

These German islands, to which the Brown and Providence islands are connected, are among the most interesting of the German properties, and have the advantage for the citizen of the Fatherland that the Government costs nothing to the home country.

On the 29th November, 1878, Captain B. V. Werner, of the corvette Ariadne, made a treaty with the chiefs Lebon and Letabalin of Jaluit to allow Germany to establish a coaling station in Jaluit.

On October 13th, 1885, the gunboat Nautilus arrived in Jaluit, its commander, Captain Rodger, having sailed a month previously under sealed orders from Yokohama. All the chiefs of the islands were prepared to accept the protectorate of Germany and two days later, October 15th, Captain Rotger performed the ceremony of hoisting the Imperial flag and, in the name of the Kaiser, declared the Marshall and the Brown and Providence Islands to be under the protectorate of Germany. One part of the cost of administering the government of the islands is paid by the traffic in copra and the rest is paid by the Jaluit Company, which trades with the Marshall Islands and which maintains a service of steamers.

The last German warships, which were in these parts, were the gunboat Jaguar in the end of April last year, the small cruiser Condor in November last year and a small cruiser Cormoran last month.