GERMANY IN THE PACIFIC.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1287, 22 August 1914, Page 4

GERMANY IN THE PACIFIC.

Of the German possessions in the Pacific, New Zealand is most interested in the Samoan Islands, with which we have regular steam comunication, says the Auckland Herald. The Americans have been quick to note that the opening 01 the Panama Canal gives the group a new importance, and they are naturally interested in the future of the islands now held by Germany, which include the best of the group. This is the richest of Germany’s island possessions and in none has greater industrial progress been made. It was one of several injudicious attempts to promote friendly relations with Germany that led Britain in 1899 to renounce her rights in Savaii and Upolu. Just as the British gift of Heligoland was used to increase Germany’s offensive power in the North Sea, so the gift of Upolu has been used to strengthen Germany’s naval position in the Pacific. The most extensive of Germany’s Pacific territories is her portion of New Guinea, and the Bismarck Archipelago, with the naval base of Simpson Hafen, comes next. The archipelago comprises a number of fertile islands, which have been successfully developed, chiefly for cocoauut plantations ; a valuable trade has been built up. The Carolines, Ladrones, except Guam, and Pelew Islands —all "old by Spain after the Spanish-American wat —the two most northerly ot the Solomon Islands, and the Marshall Islands, complete Germany’s possessions in the Pacific. The total area is more than double the size of the North Island of New Zealand. The white population is less than two thousand and the native population is estimated at 634,000. Germany evidently took it for granted when she violated Belgian neutrality as a means ot invading France that the French colonies would be the prize of conquest. For this shadowy anticipation, her own substantial possessions are in imminent jeopardy.