GERMAN NEW GUINEA.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 February 1918, Page 8

GERMAN NEW GUINEA.

HUNS RESOLVED TO HOLD ON. CONTEMPT FOR AUSTRALIA. The following is extracted from a striking article by Thomas J. M'Mahon in a recent issue of the Bulletin:— The Germans of this territory <lo not recognise the possibility of the defeat of their nation in Europe, Their cocksure-, ness as to the ultimate results is profoundly impressive. Their merchants are pushing their trade for all they are worth, and making more money than ever they' did under their own rule, an admission they freely grant; the planters, tradersj and recruiters are almost feverishly developing, trading, and recruiting; and not one of them but will laugh to scorn the idea of the German territory one day belonging to England or more directly, to the Commonwealth. The suggestion of the last prospect sends any German into a state of hysterical laughter for the contempt the average Hun here lias for the Australian is amazing. Australia they covet- as the crowning jewel of the German colonial Empire they have planned long since, and of which they are as confident today as they were in pre-war days. They look upon Australians not as a nation of wen, but, as one said, "a muck-heap of human beings, dumped out of Europe and elsewhere, lacking every qualification that makes for national for commercial advantage"; or, as another said, "a people that has no future, that livep from day to day, asking big wages and breaking the promises of to-day to ask for bigger wages to-mor-row"; or, as a third put it, "so full of strife among themselves that when the time comes we will lap up Australia as a dog laps up milk," AUSTRALIA THE MAGNET. There is not the least doubt that Australia is the magnet of German aspiration, and when they forty years ago bluffed British statesmen Into allowing them the possession of German New Guinea, they then clearly saw the strategic importance of the 'step—saw that a great deal more clearly than they realised the great richness and immense possibilitis of New Guinea. That territory has been a watch tower, as it were, and not one German official, but has studied Australia with the one ambition —to hy]mnds on the land.

Tlie decision in the first referendum on conscription is still spok'en of in Gorman Mew Guinea as proof of Australian insensibility to the dangers of the future. They do not gloat over the failure as an Indication that Australians are in sympathy with them or desire an urgent peace at any price; they despise them rather. The following, taken from a German maga/.inp, written by that ambitious person, Maximilian Harden, will show the Gorman mind in this matter. The magazine wa9 the Xukunft, picked up from a. German planter's table:— "We have 1 lie greatest- contempt possible for any human to possess for the Australian, doing- as little work as lie can, spending his substance in concubinage. in sport, in gambling (which is his religion), and in drinking. We who can claim to he honest laugh at the Quixotic bravery of the Australian whose entlmsiam carried him awav to face our Godled army. . . . We will break the hearts of unionists for all time. We are gratified at the success of our agents in Australia and the power of German gold. Those Germans who. like Judas, have turned against the Fatherland In its hour of trial will be suitably dealt with. Those who have stood firm and are now interned will be placed over their captors and in high administrative position. . . . The Australians are the most ignorant people in the wide world. Thev cannot speak or write correctly the British language. Our propaganda- in the land of the Southern Gross lias been most successful. . . . We will scatter them over the face of the earth', whilst we will retain i.n Australia their women to he mothers of a new German race In the gTeat- Pacific." The first referendum produced those remarks so full of love and goodwill. It will lie interesting to read German magazines on the last decision. STUDYING AUSTRALIA. There is not one planter's, trader's, or merchant's home but has a library, and always you will find volumes on Australia, its people, its trade and Its re-, sources. On the walls will be found maps and pictorial encyclopaedias, and these will show the latest extensions, of railway lines and roads; varying colors denote farming, pastoral, and mining districts; figures show acreage., number of stock, and prospective mineral wealth. These people know more of Australia, than the average Australian. And they believe it to be a more desirable place to possess. It. seems to be unrealised by most Australians that German New Guinea is still owned by Germany and governed by Gorman laws. The Australian military administration is merely in occupation, and with very limited powers. The. terms ot this occupation, assented to by England, aro honorabjy fulfilled. In themselves they do not carry any implication whatever that eventually the territory will pass into Australian hands. Tlie Germans never contemplate such a change. i.loyd George's idea of a referendum of the natives, as to the disposal of the territory, should tho All'es triumph is. of course, a queer piece of absurdity. But in that connection it is well to remember that the Germans, cvcil the German missionaries, have never ceased .to impress 011 the natives that one day the German Government will come back. Certainly this is an offence, anil reveral Germans have been sent to the New South Wales internment camp for it, but it goes 011. and Lloyd George's referendum mighk have a surprising result.