1942: Hawaii, Territory Of

The surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Sunday morning, Dec. 7, 1941, precipitated the entrance of the United States into World War II. Gov. Joseph B. Poindexter, immediately turned the government of the Islands over to the military authorities, martial law was established under Lieut. Gen. Walter Short, Commander of the Hawaiian Department, saving confusion and delay in the enforcement of necessary precautions for the defense of the Islands. General Short was soon succeeded by Lieut. Gen. Delos C. Emmons. Territorial government continued only in name and as a cooperative agency for the military. Civil courts were discontinued. Aliens, blackout offenders, violators of liquor regulations, were dealt swift justice in military or provost courts and there was no appeal. Several months after Pearl Harbor, civil courts and trial by jury were permitted to resume on a limited schedule and subject to many restrictions, but habeas corpus proceedings were not reestablished, and infractions of military orders and offenses involving military personnel and defense workers are tried in military courts.

Military and Civilian Defense Preparations.

Civilians not essential to the war effort were evacuated from the Islands as fast as ships could be provided. Wives and children of Army and Navy men, tourists, and invalids were the first groups, followed by the aged and infirm. The last large convoys of civilians left the Islands in June, but evacuation is continuing. Those now living in the Islands are, almost without exception, occupied in essential war work or are old-time residents. As a result of the bringing in of men for war work and the evacuation of women, Honolulu is fast becoming a city of men and very few women.

An elaborate plan of civilian evacuation of the city of Honolulu is ready to go into effect on a moment's notice if attack seems possible. All residents living within a certain distance of the ocean will evacuate either to homes of friends on the mountain slopes according to previous arrangement, or will go to places as directed by the evacuation authorities.

Extensive bomb shelters have been built by the military authority, and civilians have constructed shelters in their own yards. Practice air raids ceased long ago. Beaches and waterfront are a mass of barbed wire and strategic buildings, such as Iolani Palace, the water works, radio and telegraph stations, are barricaded with sand bags as well as barbed wire and are guarded by sentries night and day. Golf courses and other large open spaces have been dotted with wrecked cars or lengths of huge sewer pipe to prevent enemy airplane landings.

Immediately after the attack Dec. 7 all large windows in downtown Honolulu were covered with a lattice work of gummed paper tape. This would prevent shattered glass from falling in the streets. Nightly blackouts have extended from sundown to sunrise since Dec. 7. This meant blackout at 5:30 P.M. in winter and, by benefit of daylight saving, at 8:00 in midsummer. Restaurants in the winter admitted no patrons after 4:15. When blackout was first put into effect, civilians were not allowed on the streets, either walking or driving, except by special passes and in pursuit of specified duties. In summer (1942) civilians were allowed to walk on the streets of the blacked-out city until 10:00 P.M. The few cars on the streets at night on defense duty are equipped with special dimmed-out lights and the drivers must produce their passes at the demand of guards stationed throughout the city.

Among the orders of the military governor put into effect immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack was prohibition of the sale of liquor. Violators were given severe sentences. One dealer, for a minor violation, had his entire $20,000 stock confiscated in addition to five years at hard labor. The military had little trouble with violators. Absolute prohibition was enforced for three months. Bars now open at 10 o'clock in the morning and close before sundown, but a dealer allowing a patron to become intoxicated on his premises is subject to sentence and fine by the military.

No movies or other places of entertainment, quite naturally, are open at night in Honolulu, though movies are shown for service men at military encampments. Waikiki is colloquially known as 'The Gay Black Way.' Those who can afford it, and can get a reservation, occasionally go to the few beach hotels still available to civilians to dance or play cards in the blacked-out lobbies and then stay over night. The great Royal Hawaiian Hotel, formerly the last word in tourist luxury, has been taken over by the Navy and made available to sailors on shore leave.

Food Supply.

There is plenty of food in the Hawaiian Islands, but varieties available to civilians are limited. Bacon, butter, Irish potatoes and other items have not been on the market for weeks at a time because of the uncertain schedule of ships. Ceiling prices have been set by the military on certain staple items to prevent the exorbitant prices which would result from natural processes of supply and demand. Truck gardens have increased since the war started, but it is doubtful if the Islands can ever be entirely self-supporting.

Fishing in local waters has been stopped for military reasons. The majority of commercial fishermen were Japanese and their fishing sampans proved to be high-powered sea-going craft. These sampans have been tied up for the duration. Hawaii was famous for seafood, but fish served in the Islands now is generally dried codfish. Inter-Island boats have practically ceased running because of the submarine menace and occasionally the only beef available in Honolulu is sent over by airplane from the nearby islands of Maui and Hawaii.

Automobiles.

Gas rationing went into effect soon after Pearl Harbor. Ten gallons per month was the first allotment, later extended to fifteen. Recognizing the danger of tire shortage, the military authorities set a maximum speed limit of 35 miles per hour early in the spring of 1942. Tires are good for less than half as much mileage in the Islands as on the Mainland due to the fact that roads are made of lava asphalt. 'Gotta-ride share-a-ride' plans are flourishing with the full backing of civilians and local newspapers. The transportation problem has become so acute that in October 1942 an elaborate system of staggered hours was put into effect in the business section of Honolulu.

Industry.

Sugar production, long the leading industry in the Islands and now second only to war, totaled 850,000 tons of raw sugar during 1941, 10 per cent lower than for 1940. The pineapple crop, second Hawaiian industry was approximately normal. Under present conditions the canning factories are seriously handicapped because of labor shortage and blackout regulations which interfere with necessary 24-hour operation of factories during the peak of the harvest. The Army and Navy have cooperated in every possible way to facilitate harvesting and canning. One-fourth of the 1942 pack has been purchased by the Federal government for supply of troops.

Shipment of raw sugar and canned pineapple products to the Mainland has not been curtailed by the war because the great number of troop and supply ships, which come to the Islands heavily loaded, welcome ballast for the return voyage.

The tourist business, third industry in economic value in peace times, was entirely missing after Dec. 7, 1941. Tourists were among the first people to be evacuated to the Mainland. However, every able-bodied person in the Islands is working and earning good money. Defense workers imported to the Islands have more money than they know what to do with and consequently, private business is booming. The principal trouble local merchants have is to obtain goods to sell. During the period between January and August 1942, private business showed a 20 per cent increase over the previous year.

Internal Affairs.

The Japanese population in the Hawaiian Islands is still, admittedly, an unsolved problem. The Japanese comprise the largest racial group, 157,905, including approximately 35,000 aliens, according to the Federal census of 1940 or approximately 27 per cent of the total population of 423,330. Other races in diminishing percentages include Caucasians, Filipinos, part-Hawaiians, Chinese, Hawaiians, Puerto Ricans, Koreans, and others. To intern so large a percentage of the population as the Japanese represent, much less to use valuable space on ships to transport them to the Mainland, is impossible. Immediately after Pearl Harbor, the FBI rounded up some hundreds of Japanese known or suspected to be active in espionage. As soon as possible, these Japanese were sent to the Mainland for internment and the FBI is doing an admirable job of keeping an eye on the rest. The melting pot population of races in the Hawaiian Islands, on the surface at least, is getting along amicably. Admittedly, there was plenty of espionage before Dec. 7, but according to an official announcement there were no acts of sabotage the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The first evacuation of Japanese on a voluntary basis took place in November when 107 alien and native-born Hawaiian Japanese, brought over from Honolulu by the Army, arrived at the Jerome, Ark., Relocation center. The group consisted primarily of women and elderly men unable to hold essential war jobs.

All residents of the Hawaiian Islands have been registered and fingerprinted. This task was accomplished by school teachers during the period after Pearl Harbor before schools were reopened. As a precaution against epidemics, all residents have been vaccinated against smallpox and inoculated against typhoid in what is regarded as the largest mass immunization ever undertaken in the United States.

Gas masks have been issued to civilian residents of the Islands under the supervision of Col. Charles Unmacht, U.S.A., Department Chemical Officer. Every man, woman, and child in the Islands whether civilian or military has a gas mask. A 'bunny mask' which is made of layers of chemicalized flannel and linen and has attractive floppy ears and fits over the head and snugly around the waist has been prepared and issued to 23,000 babies. This mask was tested on an army officer under ten times anticipated gas concentration, and he survived. For children and adults too small to wear the ordinary-sized mask. Col. Unmacht has designed a mask with an adjusting layer of spongy rubber around the face. Bunny masks and children's masks were prepared in the emergency by high school students. For new-born babies and for cripples, Col. Unmacht has prepared respirator boxes.

Gas alarms consisting of an iron brake drum and a mallet have been installed at 1,500-foot intervals throughout the city. A certain percentage of the city's air raid wardens and 400 public school teachers have been put through a definite course of training as gas sentries.

Schools were closed after Pearl Harbor and opened on a limited schedule the middle of February. Many school buildings had been taken over entirely or in part for hospitals, offices for war activities, or dormitories for workers brought in from the Mainland. More than 5,000 students stopped school to take defense jobs or to join the National Guard, in addition to the number evacuated to the Mainland. Schools were put on a six-day week with shorter hours. Children assisted with harvesting of crops, preparation of gas masks, and other defense tasks in addition to school.

In April 1942, Mauna Loa, volcano on the Island of Hawaii, staged the first serious eruption since 1935. A fissure opened on the side of the mountain which spurted lava, ash and smoke to a height of 2,000 feet. Lava flowed in the direction of the city of Hilo, and for a time the city was believed in imminent danger. The eruption continued for approximately three weeks but for military reasons news of the occurrence was not released to the world until after it had completely died down.

All United States currency in the Islands was called in on July 15, 1942. In its place script, good only in the Hawaiian Islands, was issued. This step was considered necessary in the possible event of a Japanese invasion. A $200 fine plus confiscation of the money involved, is the penalty for taking any of this Hawaiian script off the Islands for souvenirs at the present time.

On Aug. 24, Ingram M. Stainback was appointed Territorial Governor to succeed Governor Poindexter. Gov. Stainback, a Democrat, had been United States Attorney in Honolulu and a Federal Judge. Since Pearl Harbor, he had acted as legal advisor to the Military Governor.

In the November 1942 elections, Joseph Rider Farrington, Republican, was elected Territorial delegate to Congress succeeding Samuel W. King. Delegate Farrington is president and general manager of Honolulu's evening newspaper, the Star-Bulletin.

1941: Hawaii, Territory Of

The sudden treacherous attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor (see below) electrified the world and focused universal attention on the Hawaiian Islands. As the center of the great Pacific system of United States air, naval, and military defense, the Hawaiian Islands were in 1941 the scene of concentrated and accelerated activity. The official headquarters of the United States 14th Naval District is located at Pearl Harbor on the Island of Oahu. This district includes Wake, Midway, Palmyra, and Johnston Islands as well as the Hawaiian group.

Military Preparations and Naval Establishments.

Pearl Harbor, a deep natural inlet but eight miles from downtown district of Honolulu, is the key to the defense projects which have made the Hawaiian Islands one of the most impregnable fortresses in the world. The present establishment at Pearl Harbor represents a total expenditure of more than $82,870,000 of which more than $21,000,000 was invested during 1940. An unexpended balance for building projects as of Jan. 1, 1941, amounts to more than $41,500,000.

In addition to its functions of protection, Pearl Harbor may be described as a gigantic service station for repairing and servicing ships and replenishing fuel and food supplies.

Kaneohe, on the northeast side of Oahu, is the site of the newest and most modern Naval Air Station. It was started in the summer of 1940 and was commissioned far ahead of schedule.

The Hawaiian Department of the United States Army maintains ten posts on the Island of Oahu. Before the draft, Schofield Barracks, one of the ten, was the largest army encampment under the United States flag. The newest army post on the island is Camp Malakole, headquarters of the 251st Coast Artillery of the California National Guard.

Exclusive of its extensive construction projects, army disbursements in the Islands in 1940 exceeded $32,000,000, an increase of approximately 40 per cent over the 1939 total. Of the 1940 sum, $19,291,266.92 was spent on payroll for officers, enlisted men, and civil employees.

Hickam Field, the great army air base adjoining Pearl Harbor, and Wheeler Field, adjoining Schofield Barracks, are under command of Major General Frederick L. Martin.

Because of the dependence of the islands upon food from the Mainland, great caches of foodstuffs have been stored in the mountains to supply military needs in war. Army authorities have also laid out sites in the mountains to which civilians will be evacuated during air raids.

The constantly increasing number of defense workers from the Mainland, has made an acute housing problem. To alleviate the condition, the Federal Government has started extensive housing projects. More than 2,000 home units are being constructed at Pearl Harbor, of which 600 were completed and occupied as of August 1941. At Hickam Field 550 units have been completed.

The annual report of the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce for 1940 shows that retail business in Honolulu registered an increase of $15,000,000 over 1939, and wholesale business gained approximately $16,000,000 or 30 per cent over the preceding year. These increases are due largely to the presence of United States Army and Navy units.

United States Department of Commerce figures show that the commerce of the Territory of Hawaii with the Mainland during the calendar year 1940 was valued at $229,584,669. Of this amount shipments from the Mainland totaled $127,439,539, an increase of more than $26,000,000 over 1939.

Shipments from Hawaii to the Mainland fell off approximately $11,000,000 during 1940, due to increased local consumption. Of a total of $102,145,130 in Hawaiian products, raw and processed, shipped to the United States in 1940, sugar and pineapples accounted for $93,165,776. Hawaiian imports from foreign countries during 1940 were valued at over $8,000,000; exports to foreign countries totaled $922,835, in comparison with $1,888,911 exports in 1939.

Transpacific Clipper service greatly increased during the past year. Beginning in August 1941, three planes were scheduled each way each week between Honolulu and United States. This schedule includes the 'shuttle' trips between San Francisco and Honolulu, the bi-weekly New Zealand Clippers, and the regular transpacific planes to Manila and Singapore.

Agriculture is the mainstay of the Hawaiian Islands, and sugar continues to be the principal industry. At the end of December 1940, there were approximately 38,000 employees on the payrolls of the thirty-eight sugar plantations in the Territory. Employees and their dependents living on the plantations number about 98,600 persons, a little less than one-quarter of the total population of the Islands.

The 1940 average price for raw sugar in the New York market set a new low of 2.78 cents per pound, the cause being a greater supply of Hawaiian sugar than the market demanded. The sugar division of the Department of Agriculture established the 1941 quota at a figure slightly lower than the quantity consumed, which will reduce reserve stocks and should gradually increase the market price.

From 136,417 acres harvested on the islands in 1940, 35 mills ground out 951,411 short tons of commercial sugar valued at approximately $53,088,733.80.

Pineapples, the second product in importance, throve in 1940. Shipments of canned pineapple were valued at $45,673,035. Shipments of juice totaled 351,847,499 pounds, exceeding the previous year's shipments by more than 40,000,000 pounds.

During the year 1940-41, Punahou School in Honolulu celebrated its one hundredth anniversary. In 1841 American missionaries to the Sandwich Islands, as the Hawaiian Islands were then called, established the school to serve the desperate need of their own children, who had previously been sent around the Horn to be educated in New England. The first secondary school to be established west of the Rocky Mountains for white children, Punahou, is now the largest private preparatory school in the entire United States, exclusive of parochial and mission schools. During its centennial year, Punahou had an enrollment of 1,425 students. The school and its graduates have played an important part in the progress of the Hawaiian Islands.

The year 1940 was the warmest in thirty-six years of United States weather bureau recordings in the islands. The average temperature in the city of Honolulu was 76.2° F.; the highest temperature was 87° F., recorded Oct. 3; lowest, 60° F., Feb. 24. These temperatures may be interestingly compared with the average yearly temperature of the city which is 74.8° F. The all-time high during fifty-one years of recording, was 90° F., in October 1891; all-time low, 52° F., February 1902.

The estimated population of the Territory of Hawaii, at the end of June 1941, was 466,924, an increase of 9.4 per cent over the 1940 Federal Census figures of 423,330. The population of the city of Honolulu is 179,358; city of Hilo, 23,351. Joseph B. Poindexter is Governor of the Territory and Samuel Wilder King continues as Territorial Delegate to the Congress of the United States.

Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor.

The War in the Pacific began Dec. 7, 1941, with Japan's unprovoked aerial attack on Pearl Harbor, while Japanese diplomats were still engaged in peace discussions with the United States Government in Washington, initiated at Japan's request. At about 7:55 in the morning of Sunday, Dec. 7, Japanese bombing planes launched from aircraft carriers in conjunction with Japanese undersea craft, attacked the great naval base at Pearl Harbor on the Island of Oahu, Hawaii. The Japanese bombers with their escort fighters came over in three waves, the last striking at about 11 in the morning.

Almost all the important military areas and installations of the island were bombed and strafed heavily and accurately, showing that there had been surprisingly effective Japanese espionage and Fifth Column activity. American casualties in the armed forces were exceptionally heavy. The Navy lost a total of 2,729 officers and men killed and 656 wounded. In the Army, 168 officers and men were killed; 213 were wounded, and 26 were missing. In equipment, both the Army and Navy, according to the report of Secretary of the Navy Knox who visited the islands directly thereafter, suffered tremendous losses of aircraft, most of the planes particularly at Hickam Field being destroyed on the ground. Six warships were sunk, and a number of others damaged. The battleship, Arizona, foundered when she received a direct bomb hit through a smokestack, and the battleship, Oklahoma, was severely damaged and capsized. The destroyers, Cassin, Downes and Shaw, the minelayer, Oglala, and the over-age battleship, Utah, then in use as a target ship, were sunk. The remainder of the fleet immediately put out to sea in search of the enemy. The known Japanese losses in this immediate engagement were 3 submarines and 41 aircraft.

The premeditated assault on the United States chief naval base and on other American outposts in the Pacific — Midway, Wake and Guam — which was designed to sever the lines of communication with the Philippines and the Far East, was followed by aimless shelling of the other Hawaiian Islands, Maui, Kauai and Hawaii, and by an attack on Johnston Island, a naval air station and seaplane base which had been commissioned Aug. 15.

The casualties and property losses to the United States were so heavy as to raise a question in the United States Congress as to the alertness of the defense forces at Hawaii. Formal investigation was, therefore, instituted by a board headed by Supreme Court Justice Owen T. Roberts. Secretary of the Navy Knox had previously testified that 'our forces were not on the alert against the surprise attack.' He maintained, moreover, that the Japanese were aided by 'the most effective Fifth Column work of the World War, except for Norway.'

The Roberts' report, made public Jan. 24, 1942, further showed that there had been at least two warnings of aircraft in the vicinity of the island 45 minutes before the main attack but they had been disregarded. A Japanese submarine also had been detected and sunk by a United States destroyer, the U.S.S. Ward, and a naval patrol plane. The chief blame and responsibility for the disaster, however, was placed on the military commander of the islands, Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short, and the naval commander, Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, whose lack of cooperation, the report asserted, had left open the harbor to attack, although they had been warned of the imminence of an attack as early as Nov. 27, 1941. The new officers in the Hawaiian sector, chosen to succeed Lt. Gen. Short and Admiral Kimmel, who were relieved of their commands, are Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Lt. Gen. Delos C. Emmons, chosen head of the Hawaiian Department of the U.S. Army, and Maj. Gen. Frederick L. Martin, chosen commander of the Air Forces of that department. To coordinate Army and Navy services and bring both under effective unified control, Admiral Nimitz was placed in chief command of the Hawaiian sector, with Lt. Gen. Emmons second in command under him.

1940: Hawaii, Territory Of

The islands of the Territory of Hawaii, comprising an area of 6,407 sq. mi., have a total population of 423,329, according to the Federal census of 1940. Of this total, 258,256 persons reside on the island of Oahu, including 179,358 within the City of Honolulu Judicial District. The island of Hawaii, the largest in the Territory (4,015 sq. mi.), has a population of 73,275, including 16,580 in the city of Hilo; the island of Maui has 55,534; the island of Kauai, 35,818.

According to racial origin, the population was divided in the 1939 census as follows: Japanese, 37.36 per cent; Caucasian, 25.88 per cent; Hawaiian, Asiatic-Hawaiian, and Caucasian-Hawaiian, 15.39 per cent; Filipino, 12.63 per cent; Chinese, 6.87 per cent; Korean, 1.62 per cent; all others, 0.25 per cent.

Joseph Boyd Poindexter, reappointed Governor of the Territory by President Roosevelt, began his second term on March 12, 1938. In the 1940 election, Samuel Wilder King, Territorial Delegate to Congress since 1934, was unopposed.

On the recommendation of a report made in 1938, by a Joint Committee of Congress sent to the Islands to investigate the advisability of statehood for the Territory, the Territorial Legislature passed an Act at its 1939 session authorizing the holding of a plebiscite on the subject.

In this plebiscite statehood for Hawaii was favored by the citizens of the islands, the unofficial returns indicating 39,413 in favor, 19,911 opposed. The Hawaiian Legislature will now petition the United States Congress for statehood.

The tremendous expenditures by the United States Government for defense purposes have given the Territory comparative prosperity during the last few years, despite Federal legislation limiting Hawaiian sugar production. The largest army encampment under the American flag is located at Schofield Barracks near Honolulu. The pay roll for enlisted men, officers and civilian employees serving the Army in the Territory, in 1939, totaled $14,708,512.61. Fifteen per cent of the entire U. S. Navy personnel was stationed in Hawaiian waters in 1939, with a pay roll totaling $24,846,351.50.

A new weekly-scheduled air transportation service for passengers, mail, and express was established by Pan American Airways Company on Sept. 15, 1940, between Honolulu and New Zealand, via Canton Island and Noumea. This service is in addition to the Clippers already running on weekly schedule from San Francisco to Hong Kong by way of Honolulu, Midway, Wake, Guam, Manila, and Macao. Clippers operating between Honolulu and New Zealand, and Honolulu and the Orient, carry a maximum of thirty-four passengers and have a crew of eleven. During the year ending June 1940, 1,234 people were brought by Clipper to Honolulu from San Francisco and from Hong Kong.

United States Department of Commerce figures show that commerce of the Territory of Hawaii with the Mainland during the calendar year 1939 was valued at $215,024,128. Of this amount, aggregate shipments from the Mainland totaled $101,817,230, making the Territory the fifth best market for products of continental United States. Hawaii was exceeded only by the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, and France. Of shipments from the Mainland, metals and manufactures reached a value of $27,420,127, and food products, $24,166,012. The islands produce but 15 per cent of their own food necessities, and are entirely dependent upon importations for fertilizers, tools, farm machinery, and most of the seed used.

Shipments from the Territory to the Mainland during 1939 totaled $113,206,898, the principal shipments being sugar and pineapple products. A new export product, 'papaya,' appeared on the list during 1939 as a result of the lifting of a ban on this tropical fruit by the Federal Government. Shipments of papaya during that year amounted to 176,261 pounds valued at $21,368.

Sugar production is first in importance in Hawaiian industries. During 1939, about 968,390 tons of sugar, at a total value of $57,948,637.12, were harvested from 138,440 acres, and were ground in the Islands' 35 mills. Raw sugar shipped out of the Territory was valued at $53,973,169; refined sugar, at $1,244,791. At the end of December 1939, there were approximately 43,000 employees on the pay rolls of the 38 sugar plantations. These plantations represent an investment of $175,000,000, with an annual pay roll in excess of $27,000,000. Under the paternalistic system by which the plantations are operated, employees and their dependents are supplied with houses, water, fuel, doctors and hospitalization, in addition to their regular salary; many plantations have recreational fields, community houses, gymnasium, and motion pictures.

President Roosevelt signed a bill on Oct. 15, 1940, extending the Sugar Act of 1937 until Dec. 31, 1941. This bill establishes quotas of raw sugar for the various producing areas, but limits only the Territory of Hawaii and the insular possession of Puerto Rico as to the amount of refined sugar they may market on the Mainland. The limitation, 29,616 short tons per year for Hawaii, represents but 3 per cent of the average amount of raw sugar produced in the Territory and is seriously objected to as unfair discrimination and a grave violation of the equal rights to which the citizens of Hawaii maintain they are entitled.

The pineapple industry is second in importance. During 1939, about 80 per cent of the world's supply of canned pineapple products, or 848,003,809 pounds, with a value of $50,822,533, were packed and shipped by the eight canneries on the Islands.

Because the European War has curtailed Atlantic travel, the Hawaiian Islands are becoming increasingly important as a vacation ground. During the year ending Dec. 30, 1939, tourists numbering 24,360, visited the Islands, and 41,041 one-day tourists stopped off while their ships were in dock in Honolulu. A total of 65,431 visitors, spending an estimated $10,000,000 annually, made tourist-travel third in importance among Hawaiian industries.

Ranching is fourth in importance. A total of 1,477,346 acres of ranch lands on the various islands have approximately 118,335 head of cattle. The Parker Ranch on the Island of Hawaii is the second largest in the entire United States, being surpassed only by the King Ranch in Texas. The Parker Ranch comprises approximately 294,000 acres and has 33,000 head of pure-bred white-faced Hereford cattle.

The fortification of outlying islands is being pushed in connection with the program of strengthening the United States Pacific defense system and of improving and expanding our bases, in accordance with the 'Hepburn Report.' The United States defense line in the Pacific, erected on these bases, forms an irregular triangle, from Alaska to Hawaii to the Panama Canal. Hawaii has been described as the geographical and military keystone of this defense system, and there the major portion of the United States fleet will center. On the island of Oahu has been built the strongest fortified position in the world, Pearl Harbor, at a cost of $700,000,000 so far. The United States is constructing other airfields nearby, too, and $5,800,000 was recently appropriated to improve airdrome facilities at Kaneohe, also on Oahu Island. The 'two-ocean' Navy bill, passed during the summer, and providing the largest peacetime naval appropriation in America's history, is directed in part to this program of strengthening the Pacific naval bases.