A Welcome Condominium The agreement reached between the British and
American Governments for the joint occupation and use of the Canton and Enderby islands, situated on the Equator in mid-Pacific to the north-east of the Fiji Islands, is not a great matter in itself, but its symbolic value makes it peculiarly welcome. The islands are important to both countries as an air-base, both countries have settlers there and both countries have claimed the islands. Instead of a prolonged wrangle over sovereignty it has been agreed to leave sovereignty in abeyance and share all the facilities of the islands equally. What is concerned is commercial, not military, aviation—which does not alter the fact that an air-base is an air-base—and it is emphasised that all that has been concluded, and that not in all its details as yet, is a working agreement, not a political settlement. Even so this example of cordial Anglo- American collaboration in the Pacific will not go unmarked by other Pacific Powers, and it is well that it should not. The announcement synchronises encouragingly with a statement by Mr. Daniel Roper, the United States Secretary for Commerce, that accord has been reached on 95 per cent. of the schedules in the Anglo-American Trade Treaty, and his declaration of his conviction as to the interdependence of British and American commerce.
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