The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1918. THE PROBLEM OF THE PACIFIC.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 414, 1 October 1918, Page 2

The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1918. THE PROBLEM OF THE PACIFIC.

"We not king extenuate, nor let down auoht in malice."

Writing under date July 22, the London correspondent of the " Sydney Morning Herald," after remarking that up till that time Mr Hughes had more or less confined his public speaking in London to a vigorous call for an economic campaign, and, save for one speech at the Pilgrims' Club's luncheon, had not much to say of the Pacific problem, goes on to say that the New Zealand Ministers, on the other hand, had shown a disposition to talk freely and often of the Pacific, the safeguarding of the Dominion's interests being, quite evidently, their first and foremost anxiety. Judging from their manner of speech, moreover, he is inclined to the opinion that their plain words on the subject issue from the fact of a reluctance in high places to become authoritatively definite on the subject. We are not allowed, he says, to know much of what transpires at the meetings of the Imperial War Cabinet, but in view of all the facts abroad just now, it is, he thinks, fair to assume that the question of the retention of the aforetime German colonies in the Pacific is at least undecided. "In scarcely any other way we account for Sir Joseph Ward's very frank statement of the case for the expulsion of the Germans from the southern seas. Not often, even iu these days of straight talk, is a visiting Minister so outspoken, and it was clear moreover, that Sir Joseph Ward had taken some or other alarm from what he had seen and heard in official ciicles iu this country. He referred, it will be remembered, to 'an uneasy suspicion' that this matter might become the subject of negotiation at the Peace Conference, with result, in certain conditions, of the leturn of a foothuld in New Guinea, Samoa, and the Marshall Islands to Germany, and he warned all concerned that no such thing must be allowed to occur if the bonds of Empire are to remain unstrained. Sir Joseph Ward was at all events on sure

ground wlieu he went on to say that the feeling of the Dominion

peoples of the pacific in this matter is not understood by the people of Great Britain, It is not —for the simple reason that they know next to nothing of the Pacific Ocean in general, and are only just being stirred into thought of it as an Imperial responsibility of the first order. Anything at all that our visiting representatives can do or say to educate the opinion of this public on the subject, is propaganda of first-class value, and some of us are hoping that there will be no stint ot plain speaking on their part, if to startle the British Government is the only way of impressing it. We have to reckon, all the same, with the fact that the Pacific colonies represent only one of the Government's many problems, and we are reminded of that fact this week by a speech of Herr Schiedemann, who, referring to the German Chancellor's recent statement as to Belgium, said that it satisfied every reasonable man. The Chancellor claimed Belgium as a pawn, to be given up on certain conditions, or to be retained. And the co*ditions, said Herr Schiedemann, are the return of the German colonies to Germany. Thus the Pacific and the status there of the Dominions definitely come into the larger issue of after-the-war readjustments."