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THE SPRATLY ISLANDS
INTRODUCTION
1. The widely scattered archipelago of islets and coral reefs in the South China Sea between South Vietnam and the Philippine island of Palawan (see map 1) recently came once again into the news. In early July 1971 a member of the Philippine House of Representatives stated in Congress that, while on a fishing trip, he had been fired at by heavy artillery mounted on Itu Aba. Subsequently on 10 July President Marcos gave a press conference at which he asserted Philippine interest in the area. The Chinese Nationalist "Foreign Minister" (in Manila for an ASPAC conference) told the press on 12 July that the Spratlys had been Chinese "since time immemorial". The Republic of Vietnam made a declaration on 15 July which was sent to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in August affirming its sovereignty over the Spratly archipelago. And on 17 July the New China News Agency of the People's Republic of China stated that the Nansha Islands, as they call the whole group, had always been part of Chinese territory.
2.
Other possible claimants to parts of the area are Britain and France. Many of the claims are complex and of long standing and it is thought that the recent reaffirmations of Philippine interest may be due to the fact that oil might be found in commercial quantities in the area. Interest in the shoals has increased since 1968 when multi-spectrum sensoring techniques for oil exploration were developed.
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This paper gives a brief description of the area and its inhabitants; its history; and an account of the considerable number of claims which have been made to the area or parts of the area.
AREA AND INHABITANTS
4. The area of islands in which interest has been aroused is approximately within the perimeters drawn on map 1. Each main island consists of a collection of reefs, cays and small islets surrounding a lagoon. The largest, Itu Aba (10°23'N 113021'30"E) which lies on the Tizard Bank, has been inhabited more than the others and is about 1400 yards long and 400 wide. Other major islands are Spratly Island, Amboyna Cay, and Thitu Island. The Chinese call the whole area the Nansha Islands. It has also been called the Spratly Islands or by the Japanese, the Spratly Archipelago. But the name Spratly Islands has more often been given to a variable number of islands, usually seven (see para 17), including Spratly Island itself in the west of the group. The rest of the area, or occasionally the whole of the area, is often marked on maps as "Dangerous Ground". In 1955 the United States
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