Looking Forward

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 15, 4 September 1914, Page 6

Looking Forward

THE PACIFIC ISLANDS.

ISUGCESTIONS REGARDING THE

ADMINISTRATION.

(Received 10.30 a.m.) Sydney, • September 4

Sir Everard Im Thurn, in the course of an interview, considered confederation of certain British Islands in tho Pacific, having some relation to Australia or Now Zealand, or to both,.must come some day. It was becoming evident that an island out here was more easily managed in this part of the world than from Downing .street, and it would bo therefore well to allow it to very largely manage its own affairs. Under Australian or New Zealand control, certain islands which compose the outer belt of New Zealand territory could bo best controlled by New Zealand, and others geographically and comemrcially as appendages of Australia. He believed the time had arrived for definite annexation of Tonga, especially in view of the taking of Samoa. A federation of Fiji, Samoa'and Tonga, with Australian'or New Zealand suzerainty, howover, would bo a better solution if tho Imperial authorities camo to the conclusion the responsibility of looking -after the islands should ho taken over by the Commonwealth or the Dominion combined, or each having to control separate spheres, the Commonwealth being responsible for, say, tho islands of the Western Pacific, and tho Dominion for those of the Eastern Pacific.