Australia.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 14, 18 January 1915, Page 5

Australia.

NEWSPAPER SUMMONED BY THE DEFENCE DEPARTMENT. EDITOR SEIZED BY THE CENSOR United Pbebb Association. ((Received 9.20 a.m.) Perth, January 18. The proprietors of the Daily News newspaper have been summoned by the Defence Department for publishing on December 15th certain military dispositions. The paper’s third edition was seized by the censor. THE CAPTURE OF BOUGAINVILLE. i “ (Received 10.5 a.m.) Sydney, January 18. Further particulars regarding the capture of Bougainville show that it was carried out without fighting by the troops from Rabaul. Herr Bollinger, the chief German official, hearing of the fall of .Rabaul, disarmed the native police on November 19th. The Admiralty Group has also been occupied. GENERAL. [United Press Association. 1 Sydney, January 16. Colonel Holmes with the balance of the First New Guinea expeditionary force, which was recently replaced, has returned and was warmly welcomed. Colonel Holmes speaks highly of the productiveness of the territory, but says it is not a white man’s country in the wet season.

Mr Holmes states that only a fringe of the Gorman islands have been explored, and very little is known of the interior, which is inhabited by cannibal savages. Most of the cocoanut plantations are in their infancy. Their -present value is great, hut in a few yeans it will be enormous.

A hundred and one ex.civil officials from German Pacific possessions sailed by the Sonoma under the terms of capitulation. A militia guard of fixed bayonets and a big friendly crowd watched the embarkation. Dr. Haber, late Administrator, paid a tribute to the friendly treatment he had received in Australia, and said ho was sorry to leave his English friends. Ho said he did not know whether they would remain in America or proceed to the Fatherland till they got in touch with the German Government. He described the Australian women as the most charming he had ever met—“so fresh, so piquant, so independent, yet so maidenly.”