the ripe coconut is split open and exposed to the sun the meat dries up
and shrivels and in this form, called "copra," it can be cut out and
shipped to the factory where the oil is extracted and refined. Weber
while German Consul in Samoa was also manager of what was locally known
as "the long-handled concern" (_Deutsche Handels und Plantagen
Gesellschaft der Südsee Inseln zu Hamburg_), a pioneer commercial and
semi-official corporation that played a part in the Pacific somewhat
like the British Hudson Bay Company in Canada or East India Company in
Hindustan. Through the agency of this corporation on the start Germany
acquired a virtual monopoly of the transportation and refining of
coconut oil and would have become the dominant power in the Pacific if
she had not been checked by force of arms. In Apia Bay in 1889 and again
in Manila Bay in 1898 an American fleet faced a German fleet ready for
action while a British warship lay between. So we rescued the
Philippines and Samoa from German rule and in 1914 German power was
eliminated from the Pacific. During the ten years before the war, the
production of copra in the German islands more than doubled and this was
only the beginning of the business. Now these islands have been divided
up among Australia, New Zealand and Japan, and these countries are
planning to take care of the copra.

But although we get no extension of territory from the war we still
have the Philippines and some of the Samoan Islands, and these are
capable of great development. From her share of the Samoan Islands
Germany got a million dollars' worth of copra and we might get more from
ours. The Philippines now lead the world in the production of copra, but
Java is a close second and Ceylon not far behind. If we do not look out
we will be beaten both by the Dutch and the British, for they are
undertaking the cultivation of the coconut on a larger scale and in a
more systematic way. According to an official bulletin of the Philippine