CAPTURED GERMAN COLONIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 December 1915, Page 12 (Supplement)

CAPTURED GERMAN COLONIES.

THE POSITION WHEN THE WAR IS OVER. WHAT ARE THE JAPANESE INTENTIONS? The question of the position of New Zealand and Australia when the war is ended, by the defeat of Germany, in relation to captured German colonies in the Pacific, was opened up by some statements made in Auckland last week by Mr. E. C. Eliot, Resident Commissioner in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands protectorate, who is a passenger from Suva to Sydney by the Makura. Mr. Eliot considered that it would be a wise course if the captured German colonies in the Pacific were administered for, say, 25 years, until New Zealand and Australia are ready to control their affairs. He thought that the New Zealand Government would find the controlling or all'airs in Samoa, to which the Dominion had a strong claim, too great a task to undertake in the present stage of development. He was equally assured that the time was not yet ripe for Australia to take over German New Guinea, in view of the many problems with which she was faced.

Mr. Eliot had something interesting to say in regard to Japanese activity in the Pacific. Shortly after the outbreak of hostilities, the Australian cruiser Melbourne visited the Island of Nauru, which was in German hands, and hoisted the British flag there. Forty Germans on the island, who were engaged on the rich phosphate deposits, were removed, and interned in Sydney, the island being taken without any opposition. Shortly afterwards, continued the Commissioner, Japanese warships visited his headquarters at Ocean Island, which is about 100 miles to the east of the small German possession. The admiral courteously intimated that his visit was for the purpose of enquiring about the German Island of Nauru. The Commissioner who had taken over administration oF Nauru then informed the admiral that he was too late to acquire that particular island. Since the capture of the Marshall Islands from Germany the Japanese appeared to have thoroughly established themselves. The Commissioner stated that he had been informed by traders who had visited the islands recently that the Japanese had garrisoned the place, and were acting as if they were permanently established. Personally, he would not venture to say what the intentions of the Japanese were. Speaking of the islands in the Gilbert and Ellice Group, Mr. Eliot stated that they numbered 27. His headquarter were at Ocean Island. He had officiated as Resident., Commissioner for the past two years, and was now 011 his way back to the group after paying hss first official visit to Suva to confer with the High) Commissioner for the AVestern Pacific. Ocean Island, he said, is also very rich in phosphate depasits, which are worked by about 200 Japanese and natives of the group. Prior to the outbreak of the war, the output amounted to about a quarter of a million tons per annum, but it had since been considerably reduced. The native owners of Ocean Island did not work at all; they received a large sum each year from the Phosphate Company which had acquired the rights to work the deposits.