DOB ARCHIVES very unfavorably, of course, with the 2.32 square miles of Gry land area, the 229.40 square miles of lagoon area, and the large reef areas of Bikini Atoll. Kili was purchased by German traders from the local chiefs and was operated as a commercial copra plantation by the Germans. The title to tne island was transferred to the Japanese Government when the Japanese seized the Marshalls in 1914. It was leased to a Japanese company and operated as a copra plantation until 1940. There were allegedly not more than about thirty Marshallese laborers working on the plantation at a time. Food was brought in from Jaluit Atoll, thirty miles to the southeast. about Chickens and swine were raised to supplement the imported foodstuffs. A small number of bread- fruittrees were planted and used, but the island was primarily a copra plantation. States Government Piantation workers Kili, Kili passed into tne nands of the United following World War II, were and the few remaining evacuated, lying as it does in the southern Marshall, neavy rainfall and has rich and deep soil, enjoys a for the Marshalis. Most or the island, 198.04 acres have been planted to coconut palms (191.17 acres). of the isiand to the A taro patch area occupies the extent of %.25 acres. center There are a number of bearing breadfruit trees,> some edibie pandanus, as well as banana, 3 papaya and pumpkin plantings. A serious breadfriut blight has destroyed many of the trees on Kili and remains uncneckea. A methoa of controlling this menace has not yet been found,