AMONG THE ISLANDS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 126, 14 February 1918, Page 5

AMONG THE ISLANDS

GERMAN WORK IN NEW BRITAIN Mr. J. T. M'Mahon, F.R.G.S., who is in Sydney after n visit to the German and British Solomons, lias acquired an extensive- kuoowlodge of many of the islands under British and German control during the last four or five years. Ho acknowledges the Germans's pride in their colonial possessions, and points to..the tangible assistance given by the German Government to every substantial effort at development as evidence of _ the determination of the German nation to consolidate its power abroad. It could never have been assumed, he says, that New Britain, for instance, would C7er pasn from German control. Th» local administration, both for the Government and for the developmental.organisations,' had based their plans and expectations, on the permanence of tlieir own rule.. •■ Even now the local Germans ar-° satisfied that the possessions in the Pacific, wherever tho German flag used to fly, will revert to German control. Tho spirit of arrogance, of affected disdain for the temporary ooccupation pending the determination of the Allies as to tho destinv of the canturcd German colonies, is displayed in many ways. Some of them are characteristically contemptuous; some are merely simulated resignation.