GERMANS IN THE PACIFIC.

Taihape Daily Times, 10 August 1918, Page 7

GERMANS IN THE PACIFIC.

Writing to a Sydney newspaper, Sir William McMillan, a ex-member of the New South Wales and Federal Parliaments, advocated that every German be at once deported from the Pacific Islands, and interned, elsewhere, with the future intention of clearing them altogether out of British possessions. “Late revelations -in England,” he continues, “show clearly that, even among the higher ranks of Germans, where some code of honour might have been expected to prevail, even in cases where the German was not merely domiciled, but naturalised, his treasonous nature has outraged all national hospitality, although to that domicile and the generous toleraance of a magnanimous people these aliens owned all their wealth, dignity, and happiness. Why, therefore, should we treat the German colonists of the islands with a flabby indulgence, when Ave arc interning thousands of their fellow-countrymen in 'Australia? Even with the islands declared British territory, every German in them is a potential 'spy, naturalised or otherwise. We all knoAV that the secret places of the Pacific offer unlimited opportunities for our Teutonic guests to destroy, if possible, the very people whose hospitality they betray. Even if we have got to grant compensation for removal, now is the time during the war Avhen the world is staggered ar authenticated reports of barbarities rivalling thesavagery of all the ages, to remove from every point of danger the members of a race so steeped in every conceiAmble infamy. When our enemies are beaten, then will probably come a cry from effeminate pacificists to treat them kindly, and restore everything they once possessed. This is no time for the. Allies, who rep. resent the claims of humanity all over the world, to deal lightly with those who are humanity’s self-condemned and self-confessed enemies.”