GERMANY'S COLONIAL AMBITION.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 February 1919, Page 7

GERMANY'S COLONIAL AMBITION.

NEW ZEALAND'S DEGREE. In view of the recent discussions at tbe FfMxe Conference in Paris the following summary of an address delivered by Sir Joseph Ward to the British Empire League iast July and reprinted in a recent number of the American "Current History" is of interest:— On one occasion Bismarck put this question to the British Government: •'What parts of the Australian continent are claimed by Britain 1" Do the people of the Motherland know that an attempt was made to Germanize South Australia? Have they ever heard of the "Dutch Heritage" and the "World Empire" scheme which was to embrace the African coa3t and the latter the Australian colonies and the Falkland Islands 1 I recall this to show how limitless and all pervading have been German aims and ambitions, and how that must be so again if we lapse into As long as Germany has a foothold in the Pacific she will ever stand a menace to our security and our peaceful development. . Germah penetration in the Pacific was brought about in the early eighticr. during the international scramble for new territory. We out there had 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 by the Secretary sf State for the Colonies at that time, Lord Derby, and after giving illustrations of the difficulties and complications which, ensued, Sir Joseph referred to tTie intercolonial Conference, which met in December, 18S2, and passed the following resolution: "The following acquisition of dominion in the Pacific south of the equator by any foreign power would be highly detrimental to the safety and wellbeing of the British possessions in Australasia, and injurious to the interests of 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 Munster that her Majesty's Government had no desire to oppose" the extension of German colonization in the islands of the South Seas which are unoccupied by any civilised nower. . . . The extension of some ! form of British authority in New Guinea will only embrace that part of the island which specially interests the Austra-1 lasian colonies, without prejudice to any tevritorinl question, beyond those limits" That might be described as effusiveness to Germany and partial surrender to the colonial point of view when it was too late. Such was the storv of the advent of Germany into the Pacific. A similar story might be told of Samoa. What he had said already was enough to ju«tii'y this contention that the present attitude of New Zealand and Australia regarding the possible return of the former German colonies was no flash-in-the-pnn of a hastily formed and ill-consid-ered opinion, but was the latest and most logical outcome of a mature, welldefined, and well-reasoned policy of very long standing.