Caroline Islands

CAROLINE ISLANDS. - Archipelago of numerous mostly coral islands, arranged in parallel series between the Philippines and the Marshalls over 30° of longitude (133-163 E. Greenwich) and 10° of latitude (north of the Equator); largely uninhabited, extending in all over 636 sq km. Only the larger islands (Ponape, Truk, Kusaie), as a rule volcanic and higher, are well inhabited. The population (39 thousand inhabitants, of whom 1/5 are Japanese) is made up of mixed-race peoples (Malayo-Polynesians), devoted to agriculture and trade. The C., formerly German, were entrusted to the Japanese in 1920 as a Class C mandate; but after their defeat in the Second World War they were transferred to the trusteeship administration of the United States (Apr. 1947).

Giuseppe Caraci

MEDIATION OF THE HOLY SEE

The occupation of the C. islands carried out by Germany on 25 Aug. 1885 led to considerable diplomatic tension between Madrid and Berlin. Although Spain had never formally declared its sovereignty over the C., nevertheless the fact that the archipelago had been discovered by Spaniards and that the various attempts at evangelization had also been carried out by missionaries of that nation, strengthened the Spanish government and public opinion in the conviction that they had proclaimed the disputed sovereignty at least from a moral point of view, if not a juridical one. Finally, Berlin and Madrid decided to resort to the mediation (not the arbitration!) of Leo XIII. On Oct. 22, 1885, Cardinal Jacobini, Secretary of State, submitted to the Pope the mediation plan, which recognized on the one hand Spanish sovereignty over the islands, and granted on the other to the Germans full freedom of commerce, navigation and fishing, with the right to establish a naval and coaling base on the islands themselves. Germany and Spain accepted these various points of the papal mediation, and with the signing of a protocol in Rome, on Dec. 17, 1885, the controversy was brought to an end.

Silvio Furlani