THE PACIFIC ISLANDS.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 March 1919, Page 4

THE PACIFIC ISLANDS.

MANDATES UNDER DISCUSSION VARIATIONS ADVOCATED. Received March 28, 5.6 p.m. Paris, March 34. The discussion concerning patriotic mandates continues, for reasons at present unexplained. Messrs. Hughes and Massey havo accepted the British view that the Japanese must have- similar mandates for the Carolines and Marshall as Australia has for south of the equator. The Japanese have been most insistent on the point, and the British agree that a refusal would be invidious and unfair. These mandates will forbid fortifications, but ptrmlt the "closed door" regarding trade, immigration art other policies. The weakness in the case for different mandates has been Samoa, which is not contiguous to New Zealand, and is, therefore, judged on all four* with the Carolines. Mr. Hughea is fighting for one point of difference. He wishes the clauses, relating to the junction of the islands with the mandatory countries, after a petition from the natives, to be eliminated from the Samoan and Japanese mandates, but retained in the case of New Guinea, on the ground that the extreme contiguity of the latter islands to Australia justifies this amount of difference in the mandates.—United Service.