Transport: Ocean Airway (Cont'd)

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Last week Pan American Airways forged steadily ahead with its transpacific airway program, assured by the Post Office Department that Congress would provide $1,800,000 for the first year of operation —$35,000 for each weekly round-trip between California and China. At Wake Island, one of the operating bases in the projected 8,000-mi. airway, a temporary radio station set up on the beach went officially on the air for the first time, contacting California, Honolulu, Midway Island.

Wake Island consists of three tiny jungle-clad atolls—Wilkes, Peale and Wake proper. Last week the advance construction crew ran into difficulties on Wilkes. Days of digging, drilling and blasting under a broiling sun revealed no drinking water. Further difficulties arose when the men tried to blast a ship channel between Wilkes and Peale, to facilitate unloading the supply ship North Haven. The hard coral barrier proved so resistant to dynamite that the project was abandoned. Meanwhile on Wake Island proper, a brilliant electric light system was in operation, and the Pan American pioneers looked forward to "movies and all the comforts of home" by June 1.