Establishing British coal bunker station in the Cook Islands proposed according to the Dutch newspaper De Sumatra Post dated 16 January 1903

An item reported that the British governor of Fiji proposed to found a coal bunker station on the island Soewarrow [Suwarrow, Cook Islands?] which would become of importance after the Panama Canal was completed. The islands was lying east of Samoa and north of the Cook Islands and was in the past property of the firm Henderson&Macfarlane, Auckland, New Zealand. The British consul of the Vriendschapseilanden [Tonga] Hamilton Hunter visited the island with the warship Forch for surveying purposes. The intention was to contract more as 700 British-Indies coolies for 3 year. They all would get an own piece of land for their subsistence until the station was completed.