GERMANS IN THE PACIFIC.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1863, 10 August 1918, Page 1

GERMANS IN THE PACIFIC.

Writing to a Sydney newspaper, Sir William McMillan, an ex-mem-ber of the New South Wales and Federal Parliaments, advocated that every German be at once deported from the Pacific Islands and interned elsewhere, with the future intention of clearing them altogether out of British possessions. “Late revelations in England,” he continues, “show clearly that, even among the higher ranks of Germans, where some code of honour might have been expected to prevail, even in cases where the German was not merely domiciled, but naturalisd, his treasonous nature has outraged all national hospitality, although to that domicile and the generous tolerance of a magnanimous people these aliens owed all their wealth, dignity, and happiness. Why, therefore, should we treat the German colonists of the islands with a flabby indulgence, when we are interning thousands of their fellow-country-men in Australia? Even with the islands declared British territory, every German in them is a potential spy, naturalised or otherwise. We all know that the secret places of the Pacific offer unlimited opportunities for our Teutonic guests to destroy, if possible, the very people whoso hospitality they betray. Even if we have to grant compensation for removal, now is the time during the war when the world is staggered at authenticated reports of barbarities revealing the savagery of all the ages, to remove from every point of danger the members of a race too steeped in every conceivable infamy. When our enemies are beaten, then will probably come a cry from our effeminate pacificists to treat them kindly, and restore everything they once possessed. This is no, lime for the Allies, who represent (ho claims of humanity all over the world, to deal lightly with those who are humanity’s selfcondemned and self-confessed enemies.”