DOMINION'S PART.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 January 1918, Page 5

DOMINION'S PART.

THE GERMAN COLONIES. ANXIETY OP DOMINION GOVERNMENT. -STATEMENT BY MR. MASSEY. Wellington, Last Night. \ The Government lias been making' re l presentation to-thc Imperial Government with regard to the strong feeling here as to any proposal to hand back to Germany the Pacific islands now held by British forces, also the probable difficulties of competing with a leading German firm which has been doing 'business in these islands —the Deutsche Handels and Plantagen Gessclschaft Company. Mr. Massey, alluding to-day to the question of New Zealand and the island trade, stated the Government was very anxious that the whole business of the Deutsche Handels and Plantagen Gesselsehaft Company should he. taken over by New Zealanders. and we are exceedingly disappointed that only a small part of it came to the Dominion. The difficulty on the part of New Zealanders has been the uncertainty with regard to the future of the islands, whether they will become British territory in the ordinary sense of the term, or whether, after the war, though they are now in possession of British troops, the islands will go back to Germany. "Speaking for myself," added Mr. Massey, "I am confident that; with the opening of the Panama Canal, these islands will become very important, and British people in the Pacific cannot be too careful to see that mistakes', such as those which occurred in the past, are not repeated:"