"Do not use wireless or I will shoot mast down. I am going to shoot at stores and phosphate jetties." This message, flashed ashore by lamp signals, was received one dawn last week on Nauru, a tiny British-mandated atoll just under the equator, 2,000 miles northeast of Australia. The sender was a merchantman raider which, just before making good its threat, hauled down the Japanese flag, ran up the Nazi swastika. None of Nauru's 3,400 inhabitants (194 Europeans) was hurt, but warehouses and platforms loaded with Nauru's main product—guano (seabird droppings) for...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
