Martin Clemens was now the sole British official on Guadalcanal—a position that was anything but enviable. He was not only supposed to keep the flag flying as the colonial world crumbled around him, but in taking over the Aola station, he also assumed another responsibility that would hold him on Guadalcanal indefinitely. He automatically became a link in the Islands Coastwatching Service. Developed by the Royal Australian Navy after World War I, the Service aimed to establish a network of observers who might keep an eye on the country’s vast unguarded coast in case of war.
