The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS. TUESDAY. DECEMBER 3. 1918. THE FUTURE OF THE PACIFIC

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 431, 3 December 1918, Page 2

The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS.

TUESDAY. DECEMBER 3. 1918. THE FUTURE OF THE PACIFIC

"We nothing extenuate, nor let down aught in malice."

Whkx the American battlefleet paid us a visit ten years ago the present writer stated in a leader in a city daily that the presence in these waters of the warships of the United States might be taken as a guarantee that in the future the Pacific Ocean would become an Anglo Saxon lake. In discussing with a number of American officers the question of the coming war with Germany, which was then looming up as an ominous certainty that everyone except the politicians could see, though no man could say when the blow would fall, the hope was generally expressed that when Dsr Tag arrived the American fleet would be fighting side by side with that of Britain.

Der Tag has come, and gone. For the last eighteen months the Navy of the United States has been practically incorporated with ours. Side by side with our shins the American cruisers and destroyers have patrolled the ocean routes, have guarded the narrow seas, have convoyed the helpless transports, and have joined in the busy hunt for the under-water pirates. Its heavy ships have lain at our bases with ours, waiting, waiting, waiting for the German battle fleet to put to sea And, as a crowning triumph, units of it were lined up with our ships to witness the Ignominious surrender of the enemy's fighting ships And, through it all, the officeis and crews have engaged in a geuerous emulation of the methods of our fleet upon which their own are modelled, while their public men have ungrudgingly admitted that to England's sea-power alone the salvation of civilization is due. We need have no fear that Germany's colonies in the Pacific will ever be returned to her. America is as little likely to consent to that as we are. She does not want Samoa and New Guinea for herself, out it would not by any means suit her to have them in German hands to be made

bases for submarines threatening the sea-routes between her shores and the Australasian colonies. America knows as certainly as we do that Germany's defeat has left behind it an undying hatred and desire tor revenge, and if we are ever foolish enough to let her arm herself again—and we are always very foolish in our consideration for our beaten enemies—the world war will be renewed. No oaths or promises can bind the German people, and the only safe way to peace is to make them eternally impotent to strike. One of the surest ways to effect this is to dismember the German Empire We do not wish to take irom her any part of her European dominion —though, it that will split up of itself, as seems highly probable, so much the better—but we need have no hesitation in relieving her of her Pacific and African possessions. To call them colonies is a misnomer. The Germans have no idea of actual colonisation as we understand it. They never went to their over-sea possessions with the idea of settling there. They simply went to exploit the natural advantages, and to fatten on the enforced labour —often amounting to brutal slavery—of the native races. Samoa was the first piece of German-owned land to be wrested from her grip. Inside of four weeks from the day England entered the war it fell into the hands of a hastily-mustered force of New Zealand soldiers. It was a bloodless victory, no doubt ; but with the Gneisnan and the Scharnhorst still in these waters it was as dangerous and risky an undertaking as any in the war. New Guinea and New Britain, in turn, fell into the hands of the Australians, and the German flag flew nowhere in the Pacific. With such a record New Zealand and Australia have earned the right to speak in no uncertain tone as to the future of these

islands. If, as is certain, they are not to go back to Germany, what is to become of them ? It has been suggested that they should be given over to the custody of some neutral nation, but that would be a most unsatisfactory solution of the problem Common sense and common justice would dictate they should become a part of the British Empire, and common sense and justice will no doubt ultimately decide the day. The one stumbling-block in the minds of many is Britain's repeated declaration that she did not enter the war to win territory. That is true, no doubt. She was actuated by entirely other motives But, now that these lands have

fallen into her hands, and it would be an admitted crime to give them back, Great Britain will find it impossible to do anything but retain them, and salve her conscience with Kingsley's wellknown line—" Don't be consistent, but be simply true."