THE PACIFIC.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1852, 13 July 1918, Page 3

THE PACIFIC.

STRATEGIC CENTRE OF THE

WORLD,

SIR JOSEPH WARD’S REASONS FOR RETENTION.

London, July 11

Speaking at the Australian and New Zealand Club luncheon, Sir Joseph Ward said the war was reconstituting the Empire constitutionally, industrially, economically, and socially. The old class conditions had been destroyed, and foreign dumping in Britain and the dominions was ended. He urged an unwritten alliance between Britain, Ihe dominions, America, and Japan for protection of the Pacific. If Germany were allowed to return to Samoa and New Guinea she would inevitably dominate the Pacific. The prolongation of the war for five or ten years would be justified if British domination of the Pacific was preserved, because he believed the Pacific would be the greatest strategic centre of the world in the future. It did not matter what pressure was ('.verted, Australasia would protest against allowing Samoa and New Guinea to revert to Germany, because if that happened the future of every man, woman, and child in Australasia would be endangered. II was imperatively important that (hey should induce Imperial statesmen to study the Pacific. Surely it was passible after the war that Empire statesmen could take a hand in adjusting any differences between the units of the Empire, and thus remove friction and irritation arnongst ourselves.

Sir Joseph Ward's remarks are regarded in some quarters as referring lo the settlement of the Irish quest ion, Sydney. July 11. A meeting at the Sydney Town Halt inaugurated a Hands Around the Pacific Club, linking np with branches at San Francisco, Seattle, and Honolulu, will) a view to cementing Allied interests in the Pacific internationally, socially, and commercially.