Abstract
THE ISLAND OF Formosa has an area of approximately 14,000 square miles, or that of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut combined. It lies midway between Shanghai and Hongkong and between Yokohama and Saigon; it is nearer to Manila than Yokohama. Its original settlers were of Malayan and Polynesion extraction. Formosa has greater international trade than Yugoslavia, Indo-China, or Turkey.' It produces more rice than the Philippines and more cane sugar than is produced by Hawaii or the Philippines and has developed half as much water power as India and more than Korea.! The strategic importance of Formosa was recognized first by the Dutch and the Spaniards, then later by the nineteenth-century American expansionist, Commodore Perry, who urged the acquisition of Formosa as a positive measure for American security in Eastern trade. Perry predicted that it would soon rival Hongkong and Singapore, and would put the United States in an advantageous position against designs from other powers. The Japanese call Formosa Tonan no seki or aiming at the south.' It did become such a stone in the Second World War in
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