1. Pratas Group, composed of the main island and two banks.
2. Paracels Group, composed of 31 islands, banks and reefs.
3. Chungsha Group, composed of 29 banks, shoals and reefs.
4. Nansha Group, commonly known as the Spratley Islands, composed of 102 islands, banks, shoals and reefs.
The Nansha group is located at Latitude 11°30'4°N. and Longitude 109°30' - 117°50'E. It is four hundred miles east of Palawan Island of the Philippines, nine hundred miles north of Manila, 1,700 miles from Kaohsiung. Because of the large number of reefs around it, it is usually avoided by ships.
In 1946, the Territories Division of the Ministry of Interior gave new names to all the islands and reefs in the area. There are ten big islands worth mentioning. To facilitate understanding I shall use the names customarily used by mariners in the following description.
1) Ituaba Island: It is situated at 10°20' 55"N. and 114° 22'E. It has a total area of 432,000 square meters and is 2.8 meters above sea level. The island produces all kinds of tropical fruits-papayas, cocoanuts, bananas, etc. Large quantities of sea slugs and shell fish are also produced here. As the island is the stopping place for large numbers of migratory birds, it produces feather and birds' droppings which may be used as fertilizers. Before the Sino-Japanese War, there were some 50 inhabitants on this island. During the war, the Japanese sent 300 laborers to work on the island. While it was under Japanese occupation, it was administered by the City of Kaohsiung in Taiwan, but after 1946 the Chinese Government recovered the island and sent a garrison there.
2) Thitu Islands: This island is located at 11º2'30"N. and 114°16'50"E. It is a low sandy island of 326,280 square meters, rising 3.4 meters above sea level. It is ringed on the west by coral reefs. Some cocoanuts, bananas and shrubs are grown on the island. Though there are no inhabitants on the island, it is used by fishermen for refuge and for fresh water supply.
3) Spratley Island: After 1946, this island was renamed by the Chinese as· Nan Wei. This is a barren coral reef of 147,840 square meters where nothing is produced except bird droppings and birds' eggs and turtles. The latter come in droves in the months of June and July to lay eggs.
4) West York Island is located at 11º7'N. and 115°2'30"E. This island is about one mile long and half a mile wide. It grows some cocoanut trees. There are one fresh water well and a lot of turtles, sea slugs and shells.
5) Yung Hsing North Island and North Danger: Yung Hsing North Island is situated at 11027'14"N. and 114°20'57"E. It is 133,320 square meters in size and 3.2 meters above sea level. It produces plenty of shrubs, sea slugs, shells and birds' droppings. North Danger is formed by a group of coral reefs 37 to 52 miles from Thitu Island.
6) Yung Hsing South Island is situated at 11º25'50"N. and 114°19'35"E. It is 125,400 square meters in size and 4.6 meters above sea level. It produces an abundance of shrubs, shells, sea slugs and several thousand tons of bird droppings. There is no fresh
water here, but the place is frequented by fishermen, who get their fresh water supply from Yung Hsin North Island.
7) Namyit Island is located at 1º11'2"N. and 114°21'42E. It is 75,200 square meters in area and 6.2 meters above sea level, the highest among the group of Nansha islands. The island measures approximately 600 by 200 meters. There are no inhabitants on the island and no fresh water well. Only shrubs grow there.
8) Loaita Bank measures 41 miles long and 13 miles wide. It is located at 10º40'46"N. and 114°24'54"E. It is 62,700 square meters in size and two meters above sea level. The sand bank is surrounded by coral reefs. Nothing but brushes grow on this island.
9) Amboyna Island 'is located at 7°50'N. and 112°55'E. Smallest of the group, it is only 15,840 square meters in size and 2.8 meters above sea level. It is surrounded by coral reefs. There is not a single inhabitant on the island, though there are signs of past habitation. Nothing is known of the products of the island except that there is a large quantity of birds' droppings.
10) San Cay is located at 10o22'50"N. and 114°28'36"E. Some peach trees are grown on the island.
On the whole a good deal of tropical fruits and vegetables such as cocoanuts, bananas etc. are grown on this group of islands. As this is the meeting ground of migratory birds, a great amount of bird 'feathers and droppings is found here. The neighboring seas produce an abundance of fish and marine products, but as the islands are mostly uninhabited, little of the products is made use of. According to the latest information, some 70,000 tons of birds' droppings is available on these islands.
Ever since the Chin and Han dynasties, China's maritime activities have reached the South Seas and the various groups of islands mentioned in the foregoing have been under Chinese sovereignty. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, when maritime communication with the West was carried out in earnest, the whole of the South China Seas came under China's influence. When Cheng Ho of the Ming Dynasty made his seven trips to the West, he stopped at most of these islands on his way, which explains why coins minted in Emperor Yung Lo's reign of the Ming Dynasty have been found on the Paracels group. Up to the time of the Manchu Dynasty, all the territories bordering on the South China Seas were either Chinese territories or China's tributaries. Tribute bearers came from as far as Sulu.
No country around the South Seas at the time could compare with China either in culture, or power, or maritime activities. This shows beyond any question of doubt that the South Sea Islands have long been discovered and ruled by China.
In the latter part of the Manchu Dynasty, China's fortune began to decline. It was then that the foreign powers began to cast a covetous eye on these islands. The Chinese government, however, has fought hard to retain their control. During the. Second World War, not long after their occupation of Hainan Island, the Japanese went ahead to occupy both the Paracels and the Spratleys. When the war was over, the Japanese garrisons on these islands surrendered to the Chinese and accepted repatriation. I was at this time that the Chinese government put these islands under the jurisdiction of the Kwangtung Provincial Government but under the administration of the Chinese Navy. On October 29, 1946, the Chinese Navy sent four ships-the Tai Ping, the Yung Hsing, the Chung Chien and the Chung Yeh-to the island together with personnel from the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Interior, the Radio Administration, the Weather Bureau and the Kwangtung Provincial Government. They reached their destinations in December of the year and set up their headquarters and left a garrison on Tai Ping (Ituaba) Island, while the rest of the personnel took up surveying, mapping and research on the islands. Among the things they did was to give new names to the various islands. The garrison stayed on the islands until 1950. It was only after our evacuation from Hainan Island that the garrison was temporarily withdrawn from the Paracels and Spratleys. As to the Pratas group, our Navy maintains guard there up to this day. In the past, Germany, France and Japan all tried to seize the islands but all had to give them up.
In March, 1956, an exploration party, sponsored by Tomas Cloma, a Filipino, of forty members set sail for these islands in a training ship. Soon after, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs received a letter from Cloma saying that since these islands were outside of the Philippine territorial waters and they belonged to no one, he had staked his claim for them. He went on to say that nine of the islands had been surveyed and occupied by his men.
The Cloma party included residents from Bohol, Cebu, Samar and Leyte of the Philippines. Eight of them were students from the Philippine Maritime Institute, of which Cloma was president. They brought with them dry straw, bamboo and other light construction materials. They also brought some seeds and animals. It was Cloma's dream that by the end of 1956, there would be some 600 new settlers on the islands.
Cloma put signs on the island which his party had surveyed. The signs read: "This island is owned by Cloma and his companions from Manila, Philippines. It will be part of the Freedom Land." At the same time, he sent the maps and related documents to the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs. Cloma had a farewell dinner with the Vice President and concurrently Foreign Secretary of the Philippines and Senator Tenada before he left for his exploration. It thus shows that his exploration might have had semi-official blessing.
After the news of his exploration leaked out, the Chinese Foreign Minister, Dr. George K. C. Yeh, called in Ambassador Narciso Ramos of the Philippines, and told him that the sovereignty of South Sea Islands belonged to the Republic of China. He was asked to report this to his government. Mr. Lee Chin, Director of the Department of East Asia of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Mr. Cheng Tze-yueh, author of "The Geography of the South Sea Islands," were also present. Minister Yeh gave a copy of the book to Ambassador Ramos. It contains the best information among all the published works concerning the South Sea Islands. Mr. Cheng was formerly a technical assistant of the Territorial Department of the Ministry of Interior. He was with the naval party that was sent to the islands in 1946 and wrote the book after his return to Nanking.
Minister Yeh had another appointment with Ambassador Ramos on May 30, during which he told the Ambassador: "The whole country is deeply concerned with the problem of the Spratley Islands. It is hoped that the Philippine government would restrain its citizens from violating our sovereignty over the Spratley Islands."
On June 1, Vice Minister Chou Shu-kai in his capacity as spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press conference that after the Chinese Ministry of Interior took over the four groups of islands in the South Seas in 1946, they surveyed and gave the islands new names. What the Filipinos called Spratley Island is actually the Nan Wei Island. At that time, General Lo Cho-ying was Governor of Kwangtung Province.
He was also known as Lo Wei-tze. So they used the word "Wei" to name this island in his honor. Other islands were named after our ancient and contemporary heroes.
The case became complicated when the South Vietnamese government put in a claim for the islands. On June 2, 1956, Vice Minister Chou strongly denied the South Vietnamese claim to these islands by saying: "When our Ministry of Interior readjusted the boundaries of the South Sea Islands and issued a formal proclamation, no country protested against our sovereignty over these islands."
Concerning the assertion of the South Vietnamese government that it had made reservation about the islands at the San Francisco Conference of 1951, Vice Minister Chou said: "The Republic of China did not participate in this conference. But on July 13th, 1951, just before the conference was about to take place, our Foreign Minister, Mr. George Yeh, issued a statement, pointing out that China would not be bound by any decision made in the above-mentioned conference if It involved our rights or privileges. When the conference formally took place on September 15, the then Government Spokesman, Mr. Shen Chang-huan, reiterated the announcement made by Minister Yeh. Subsequently, in the Sino-Japanese Peace
Treaty signed in 1952, Japan openly assured the Chinese Government that she would give up all the rights and privileges over the Spratley and the Paracel Islands."
From the brief survey in the foregoing, it will be seen that there is little question that the South Sea Islands including the Pratas, Paracels, the Chungsha and Nansha (or Spratley) groups all belong to China historically and legally.
NO MORE WIFE FOR RIVER GOD
At the time of the Duke of Wei, Hsi-meng Pao was appointed the magistrate of Yeh. On arrival at Yeh, Pao called a meeting of the elders, during which he inquired about the sufferings of the people. The elders said: "We find it onerous to get a wife for the River God, which is also the cause of our poverty."
When Pao asked them the reason, they replied: "The Three Elders and the officials in the magistrate's yamen usually make an annual assessment on the people to the tune of several million. They would, use two or three hundred thousand of this money to get a wife for the River God and divide the balance among themselves and the Witch.
"When the time comes, the Witch would go around; and when she saw a good-looking girl in any family, she would say: 'This should be the River God's wife.' Whereupon the girl would be betrothed and brought away, bathed, had her hair cleaned and had silk, embroidered and crepe dresses made for her. She would be required to rest and fast and refrain from drinking. A temple for fasting would be prepared for her on the river bank, where yellow and red curtains were hung. The girl stayed in there. Beef, wine and rice were prepared for her. After more than ten days people come to powder and dress her, supply her with the dowry of a bed and mat, ask her to sit on them and float her into the river. At first she would float. After scores of li she would sink.
Families who have pretty girls were afraid lest the Senior Witch would marry them to the River God, so they took them to far-off places. The result is that the city is more and more emptied of people and is becoming poorer and poorer. This has been going on for a long time. There 1S a saying among the people: 'If no wife is provided for the River God, water will come and drown the people’”
"Next time when it comes to take a wife for the River God, I hope the Three Elders, the Witch and the gentry would all come to the river to bid the girl farewell. I will also be there to see her off," Said Hsi-meng Pao. All those who were at the meeting said: "Yes."
When the time came, Hsi-meng Pao went to meet them on the river. The Three Elders, officials, leaders, local gentry were all there. Some two or three thousand people came to witness. The Witch was an old woman of seventy years of age. Standing behind her in attendance were more than ten of her disciples all dressed in thin silk dresses.
Hsi-meng Pao said: "Send for the betrothed of the River God Let us see whether she is beautiful or ugly." Thereupon they brought to him the girl from inside the curtains. Pao looked at her and turned to address the Three Elders, the Witch and the gentry:
"This girl is no good. Will Madam the Senior Witch please go in to report to the River God that we will have to look for a prettier girl and will send her along day after tomorrow." He then told the guardsmen to take hold of Madam the Witch and throw her into the river.
After a while, he said: "Why does Madam the Witch take such a long time? One of her disciples should go to hasten her." They threw one of her disciples into the river. After a while, he said: Why does it take the disciple so long, send another to hurry her up." They threw another disciple into the river. In all they threw three. "Madam the Witch and her disciples are," Hsi-meng Pao said, "only women. They cannot explain anything. Will the Three Elders please go in and explain." They threw the trio into the river. Hsi-meng Pao put his pen in his hair and held himself in a respectful bow facing the river and waited a long time. The gentry, officials and onlookers were all surprised and fearful. Hsi-meng Pao looked back and asked: "Madam the Witch and the Three Elders have not come back. What shall we do?" He was going to send one of the officials of the yamen and another from the gentry to go in to expedite the matter, but they both knocked their heads on the ground till their foreheads broke and bled and looked deathly pale. Hsi-meng Pao said: "Very well. You may stay and wait awhile." After a while, Pao said: "You may get up. It looks as if the River God is keeping his guests for a long time. You all go home." C This threw fear into the officials and people of Yeh. Never again would anyone dare mention taking a wife for the River God.- Shih Chi by Sze Ma Chien