CONTROL OF THE PACIFIC

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 255, 5 January 1911, Page 5

CONTROL OF THE PACIFIC

A COMMONWEALTH AMBITION. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Sydney, January 4. The Herald states that an important movement is on foot with a view to having the office of High Commissioner of the AVestern Pacific removed from Fiji to Sydney, the proposal being that the position shall eventually become a Commonwealth instead of an Imperial one. It adds that the question, it is understood, has already received the attention of the Federal Government, but it is realised to bo a somewhat difficult task to induce the British authorities to recognise that Australian interests in the Pacific have absorbed and outgrown the Imperial interests. The Herald further says: "We can only regard the Pacific as the natural batfrlCf between ourselves and the Asiatic East. We have all along argued what is now an admitted fact, that questions of geography make Fiji a most undesirable place of residence for the High Commissioner, and now that the islands arc being recognised as promising fields for the planter, there is all the more need that a definite policy should be pursued right through the Pacific, and that the Commissioner be so placed that he can control such policy at any point of its application. Sydney is such a natural centre, and with the improvement of communication its claims will be more obvious."