OUTPOSTS OF THE PACIFIC

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 47, 19 November 1917, Page 6

OUTPOSTS OF THE PACIFIC

, GILBERT AND ELLICE GROUPS.

Mr. E. C. Eliot, formerly Besident Commissioner ol". the Gilbert and Ellice protectorate, notices iu the "United Empire" for September that the Protectorate has been incorporated into the Empire, and was proclaimed ft. Crown Colony by His Majesty's Order-in-Coun-cil of November 10, 1915; since that dato the Union group, together with Fanning and Washington Islands, have been included within the colony by subsequent Order-in-Council. The chief interest on this side of the world is the steady advance of Japanese trade, which is given a clear field owing to the withdrawal ot German competition and to the drastio navigation laws of the Commonwealth of Australia. The latter's Pacific ?h\T>ping* trade is so penalised that it stands , to-day in imminent peril of submersion"—not by enemy submarine, but by the more'enlightened policy of an ally. Tho islands of 'the Gilbert group are undergoing a serious period of drought. These droughts occur, at intervals of about seven years—the last having been experienced in 1909-10 and aie usuallv confined to those islands lying on, and within two or three degrees south of the Equator. Coconut trees have heen dying in thousands on the half dozen islands lying within the indicated zone, and the output of copra will consequently, be much restricted for at_ least ine next two years. There are indications that both American and Japanese firms will compete for the cfjpro/ trade of tie colony, which will severely test Australian firms competing under grave disadvant-^ ag The operations of the Pacific Phosphate Coninany at Ocean Tslaiul. and «t the neighbouring island off Nantn, have been much restricted .by war conditions, but the export continues, as the phosnhate is urgently needed for the Australian Wheat crop. A certain amount is also still exported to .Tanan. The future of British Pncific administration opens up a wide field for speculation- It is, I think, "generally admitted that these scattered possessions ond dependencies under Imperial. Commonwealth, or Dominion (New Zealand) control are in urgent need of a 'policy of uniformity. It is unlikelv that nvpehican bo under- ' taken until the conclusion of the war to bring about cohesion of-these widely scattered groups, which at present are -not in a position to withstand organised trade expansion from without the Empire." _______ '