there have been a number of private individuals who have asserted territorial rights (sometimes in conflict with each other) under the names of the Kingdom of Humanity, the Republic of Morac-Songhrati-Meads, the Principality of Freedomland, the Free Territiory of Freedomland, and the Republic of Koneuwe.
In 1863-1879 a British subject, Captain James George Meads explored the South China Sea in his ship the "Modeste." He laid claim to the Spratleys and the Paracels. Later he transferred ownership to a relative, Franklin M. Meads who helped organize the Kingdom of Humanity. It was proclaimed in April 1914 by Franklin Meads in conjunction with Victor L. and Charles G. Anderson, William Chaplin, Willis Alva Ryant, Paul Williard and Walter Hutchinson. Meads took the title of Chief of State and they renamed the South China Sea the Humanity Sea to discourage the Chinese claims.
The Japanese were in the islands briefly in 1917 and occupied them from 1939 to 1945. Following World War II, Franklin Meads transferred his title to Josiah N. Meads in October 1945. In November, 1945 the title passed to Morton F. Meads, but because of his youth Willis Alva Ryant served as Chief of State until September 1963. Morton Meads is said to have lived in the islands, raising chickens, ducks and goats and processing gooney birds for the restaurants of Saigon and Manilla. Meanwhile, claims over the islands which had been made by Sultan Songhrati, who lived in the Netherlands East Indies, were sold in 1946 successively to the sister of the Philippine President and then to Morton F. Meads.
Free Territory of Freedomland
A number of reefs and islands surrounding the Spratlys were claimed by Philippine millionaire Thomas Cloma on 15 May 1956 under this name. The flag consisted of a red field with a very broad navy blue border on all four sides, in the center a highly stylized white flying bird. Cloma almost provoked an international incident on 7 July 1956 when he presented the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Manila with a Chinese flag he had lowered on Itu Aba, where it had been hoisted by the Chinese navy. A month later a landing party from the Republic of Vietnam (i.e. "South Vietnam") raised its flag in the Spratleys.
In August 1974 French police arrested a swindler who styled himself the Grand Duke of the Principality of Freedomland, Count Othmar di Schmieder Rocca-Forozata. It would seem as though this Freedomland was not the same territory as Cloma's Freedomland; contradictorally also called the Republic of Koneuwe, it was described as consisting of 74 islands 2,000 miles from Borneo.