Monica Wimmer, age 13, of Great Falls, Mont., for her question:

WHAT IS THE PACIFIC COMMUNITY?

The Pacific community is a loosely defined geographical and political division of the earth. Geographically, it includes Australia, the islands of the Pacific ocean and regions bordering the Pacific, such as the western parts of the Americas, the eastern parts of Asia and the Pacific side of Antarctica.

Politically the Pacific community includes ail nations and states in the area that are connected with the welfare of peoples in the Pacific community.

These lands and their common ocean cover more than two thirds of the surface of the earth. More than 1,800,000,000 people live in the Pacific community.

Lands of the Occidental Pacific, or the Americas, and the Oriental Pacific, or Asia, lie far apart and only recently has this huge, loosely knit community been regarded as a division of the globe.

Many of the young nations of the Pacific community are busy setting up their own institutions and furthering the economic welfare of their people. But science and technology are helping to shatter barriers and distance. This in turn encourages mutual understanding and respect for the cultures and aims of the Pacific community.