THE NEW PACIFIC.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 290, 6 July 1917, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE NEW PACIFIC.

Even at this late Lour, when Germany's lust for world-dominion lias been demonstrated beyond all question, it may surprise some colonials to be told that ''Germany laid htr plans as carefully against Australia as she did against France and Belgium, against Russia and Servia, and against Great Britain herself." Yet tin's fact is affirmed by Mr Hughes, in the foreword which ho has contributed to Mr C. B. Fletcher's illuminating book, "The New Pacific: British Policy rnd German Aims." Sixty years ago Germany opened her campaign amid the islands of the Pacific Ocean. She saw Australia, an empty continent looking northward, like an outpost upon Asia. And gathered ahout her were the mysterious island?, then the half discovered homes of romance, yet destined, as the sanguine Germans bc'ieved, to fill the coffers of Hamburg and Berlin. So thev set to work, did the Germans, with their usual forethought and their familiar want of scruple. With the help of John Caesar Godeffroy—a name surely meant for conquest—they established a firm, and in twenty years the firm boasted profitable centres all over the Pacific, and i ad absorbed most of the trade of the islands. The early traveller noted the firm's dangerous rapacity. "The hoi.se of Godeffroy's of Hamburg," wrote Miss Gordon-dim-ming in 1878, "were the grab-alls of the Pacific. They wee unscrupulous in all their ways. They supplanted other traders, and secured their own footing by artfully fostering the intertribal disputes which T »ere ever smouldering among the Samoans>. and then liberally supplying the combatants with arms and ammunition from their own arsenal at Liege. For these useful imports they accepted payment in bpoad tracks of the most fertile land in Samoa." When R. L. Stjronson wrote in 1802 "the true centre »>f trouble" was still the German firm, and this it remained until August, 1911. But as yet Germanv had no sure footing in the Pacific. Her traders were, to be. sure, active and dishonest. Her flag flew nowhere in token of possession. It was then, according to the author, th.it the gravest blunder was made, and "our supine Government permitted the Germans the freedom of annexation which they denied to the men of their own blood. Our adversaries were permitted to acquire a large empire in the Sovth Seas. German New Guinea, the Bismarck -¥rchipelago, the Marshall Islands, fell into their hands, and were administered with the brutality we might have expected. Of the atrocities co nmitted by the Huns in New Guinea Mr Fletcher forbears to speak. "Germany's policy in the Pacific," he says, "has been a mixture of bullying and unscrupulous double dealing." £he took advantage of nativa simplicity to cheat and to steal. When she put her flag up in New Guinea she declared that all land claims would be honoured, and teen it was found that the natives hal already agreed to dispossession for some worthless "trade." Thus wherever the Germans have gone tyranny and chicane have gone with them. They have enslaved the natives, swindled the whiti men, and been faithless always to their solemn engagements. Over and over again the enterprises of Britoas amb Australians have been ©booked by the craft of German companies and the sub-idies of the German Government. There has been no fair play, no reciprocity. And for the most part of the time the British Government has stood idly by with it-; hands folded in pious anticipation of Germany's will. When in IS?3 Mr McThvraith rnuexed part of New Guinea <n behalf of-Queensland, bis action \va-, resented as an impertinen e; yet his action summoned the first convention of Australia, and gave us the land which the skill and wisdom of Sir William Macgrcgor have turned to excellent account. And even when the Germans, in deforce of their engagements, tried to exclude Australian trade from the Marshall Islands, the battle of Britain and the T)( >»ini'>n« •>'-;.-: - :

and won not by tie British Government, but by the private firm of Messrs Burns, Philp and Co. And then the war put an end to Germany's plot.; and plans in the Pacific. All the possessions, which she had fostered with care, and equipped with gigantic wharfs and stores, far beyond the needs of commerce, and with wireless stations, designed for "The Day," fell into the hands of Australia and New Zealand. If, ms we believe will come to pa-s, these possessions shall remain with those who now hold them, what will be their future? They have been wrested at last from Germat.y's grip, a work which Mr Hughes Hi.ens to "operating at a dentist's clviir, or rather like cutting the tentacles of an octopus with blows from an axe." And when peace is signed it will need the wisest heads in the Empire to shape a proper policy and provide adequately for its carrying out. In Ijn'(1 j n'( T.ord Ro-obery said at Sydney that it Wis Australia's destiny to be the trustee of the Pacific —"one of the greatest destinies," he thought, "that have ever been reserved for a powerful iif.tion." That Australia and New Zealand will fulfil their destiny is not doubtful. But t'ie problem which lies ahead cannot be solved without work and good will. Tt involve-, as Mr Fli teller sh. >ws, l. any questions for which answer.* must be found when tin' hour of reconstruction strikes. For this re.ison, Mr Fletcher's book is nil (lie more valuable cow. because it narns our statesmen of the diffieullies which presently they will have t-i surmount.