PALAU, FLAG OF

national flag consisting of a blue field with a prominent, off-centre golden disk. The flag's width-to-length ratio is 5 to 8. As part of the United States-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI), Palau was under the flags of the United Nations, the United States, and the Trust Territory. Local desire for a separate state and government was realized on January 1, 1981, and a Palauan flag was hoisted on that occasion. A competition had been held in 1979 that resulted in more than a thousand proposals; the one chosen was created by Blau Skebong and was approved by the new government on October 22, 1980. This flag is still in use today. The golden disk represents the moon, which has special meaning for Palauan culture. The full moon is traditionally considered the best time for fishing, planting, and other activities. It is said to give the local people a feeling of warmth, tranquillity, peace, love and domestic unity. The background of the flag is not, as might be expected, a symbol of the Pacific Ocean; rather, it refers to the final passage of the foreign administering authority from our land. Full independence was not achieved by Palau until October 1994, but no alteration was made in the flag at that time. The original flag of 1981 is preserved in the Palau Museum in the capital, Koror. The Palauan flag is similar in design to the flag of Bangladesh, but the two have different colours and symbolisms. Whitney Smith History Large hillside terraces, numerous stone ruins, and megaliths on Babelthuap give evidence of a vital culture before contact with European explorers. The first extensive contact of Palauans with Westerners took place after the shipwreck of the East India Company's packet Antelope in 1783. George Keate's An Account of the Pelew Islands (1788), which recounted the friendship and high adventure found in Palau, served to fuel the European myths of the noble savage and island paradise. The first 70 years of the 19th century were punctuated by the occasional visits of whalers and traders, who left beachcombers and firearms behind. Diseases communicated by contact with Europeans led to the deaths of many islanders, and firearms were prized for intervillage warfare, which was ended in 1883 through the peaceful intervention of Captain Cyprian Bridge of HMS Espigle. Spanish and German colonial influence was expressed through Roman Catholic missionaries. The Japanese navy expelled the Germans at the beginning of World War I, and, although the Japanese period is locally remembered as one of economic development and order, the Palauans were a marginal minority by 1936. Japan lost Palau in World War II in a struggle that was socially destabilizing and confusing to the Palauans. After a short period of administration by the U.S. Navy, Palau became part of the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands under U.S. administration in 1947. A constitution was adopted in 1981 (following two prior referendums), and elections were held in the same year. The country became internally self-governing in 1981. Palau signed a Compact of Free Association with the United States in 1982, but the required number of voters failed to pass the referendum until 1993. The compact required that the United States remain responsible for external security and defense and that it provide financial assistance for Palau, but conflict arose over Palau's constitutional prohibition on the operation of U.S. nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed vessels and aircraft within the jurisdiction of Palau. According to the terms of the compact, the United States reserved this right as well as the right to neither confirm nor deny the presence or absence of such weapons in Palau. Several attempts were made to revise the constitution, revise the compact agreement, and secure Palauan approval, and the United States dissolved the trusteeship in 1986. In 1992, voters approved an amendment that reduced from three-fourths to a simple majority the popular vote required to override the antinuclear provision of the constitution. This cleared the way for approval of the compact in 1993. In 1985 volatile internal politics resulted in the assassination of the first president, Haruo I. Remeliik. In August 1985 Lazarus E. Salii was elected to serve out the four-year term begun by Remeliik in January 1985, but Salii himself met a violent death in August 1988. Donald Raymond Shuster