GERMANY'S COLONIAL AMBITION

Taihape Daily Times, 11 February 1919, Page 5

GERMANY'S COLONIAL AMBITION

NEW ZEALAND'S DECREE. In view of the recent discussions at the Peace Conference in Paris the following summary of an address delivered by Sir Joseph Ward to the British Empire League last July and reprinted in a recent n umber of the American "Current History/' is of interest: —

On one occasion Bismarck put this question to tho British Government: "What parts of the Australian continent are claimed by Britain?." Do the people of the Motherland know that an attempt was made to Germanise South Australia? Have they ever ever heard of the "Dutcb Heritage" and the "World Empire" scheme of the early eighties with its inner and outer circles, the former of which was to embrace the African coast and the latter the Aus"Eralian colonies and the Falkland Islands? I recal i this to show how,* limitless and all-pervading have been the German aims and ambitions, and haw that must be so again if we lapse into indifference. As long as Germany has a foothold in , the Pacific she will ever stand a menace to our security and our peaceful development. German'penetration in the Pacific was brought about in the early eighties during the international struggle for new territory. We out there have seen the danger for years, but it required an infinitude of patience and the acceptance of * many snubs and rebuffs before the" Motherland could be induced to annex Fiji and other territories.

.'After recalling the action of Queensland -with regard to taking formal possession of New Guinea in 1883, which was not approved for the Secretary of State for the Colonies at that time — Lord Derby— and after giving Sllustrar tion of the difficulties .and complications which ensued, Sir Joseph referred to the Intercolonial Conference, which met in December 1882, and passed the following resolution: "The further .acquisition of dominion in the Pacific south of the equator by any foreign power would be highly detrimental to the safety and well-being of the British possessions in Australasia, and injurious to the Empire." Despite that, Germany, in August. 1884, annexed part of New Guinea, and what was the attitude of the British Government then ? Lord Granville was "able to assure Count j Munster that her Majesty's Government had no desire to oppose the extension of German colonisation in the islands of the Souljj Seas which are unoccupied by any civilized power

. . . The extension of some form of British authority in New Guinea will only embrace that part of the island which specially interests the Australasian colonies, without prejudice to any territorial question, beyond these limits." That might be described as effusiveness to Germans and partial surernder to the colonial point of view when it was too late. Such was the story of the advent of Germany into the Pacific. A similar story might be told of Samoa. What be" had said already was enough to justify this contention that the present attitude of New Zee land and

Australia regarding the possible icturn of the former German colonies

was no flash-in-tlie-pau or' a hastilyformed and, ill-considered opinion, but was the latest and most logical outcome of a mature, well-defined, and well-reasoned policy of very long standing.