THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY MAY 22, 1907. GERMANY'S FOREIGN POLICY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8446, 22 May 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY MAY 22, 1907. GERMANY'S FOREIGN POLICY.

The Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirchenzeitung, which is often well informed with regard to the opinions of the ruling classes in Prussia, gives a sketch of the present relations of Great Britain with a great variety of foreign Powers, including Russia, and after somewhat arbitrarily interpreting this situation as disadvantageous to German interests, comes to the conclusion that the only neighbours upon which Germany can now rely are Austria and Roumania. In these circumstances it finds cause for congratulation in the result of the recent elections, which have produced a Reichstag ready and willing to vote the expenditure necessary for the expansion of the national defences as the basis of German policy. The provision made in the Estimates for supplying the army with the new recoil-tube gun, the improved rifle, and the new infantry ammunition will have the effect of once more enabling the German army tu outdistance all its rivals, and particularly France. The Rhenish organ of the Centre, the Kolnische Volkszeitung, after legitimately protesting that the Centre party is as willing as any other to maintain the defences of the country, points out that the current complaints of German "isolation" constitute a reflection upon German diplomacy, which, with the strongest army in Europe at its back, ought to find the maintenance of 'satisfactory foreign relations comparatively easy. THAT EXCHANGE QUESTION. Correspondence, which we publish this morning, certainly goes to show that we are not entirely alone in the community in regard to the view which we hold concerning the position

that exists between tha Government and the Trustees of the Master ton Trust Lands Trust in regard to the terms of exchange agreed upon in order to provide the Government with a suitable site for a Courthouse. We believe that there is urgent necessity for the whole position to be' presented in a thorough manner to the Government as immediately as possible. Yesterday we were informed that it is the intention of the Govern ment to call for tenders, at an early date, for the erectiop of a police station on the Crown's site in Queen Street, on which the Police Sergeant's residence now stands. A proper police station is certainly a painful necessity. The building, in. which arrested persons are now locked up, is simply a disgrace, but though no one will deny this fact, strong objection must be taken if the Government propose to destroy a valuable business site by erecting thereon a "lock-up," which, in any case, it is most undesirable to have erected on the site mentioned. The police station should certainly be centrally situated, but for reasons, which need not now be dealt with, it is undesirable to have it situated in the main business thoroughfare, in the heart of the town. As we have already pointed out, there can be no question that it was an equal exchange which both Parliament and the Trustees contemplated, ar.d had, practically, agreed to, when "The Mastertbn Trustees Empowering Act, 1902," was passed. It was an arrangement which suited both parties, and suits them equally well to-day, and, a3 a matter cf justice to the people of Masterton, the Government should see that the exchange is effected. Any person of the most ordinary intelligence, who has given but the slightest consideration to\ the question, knows that the Trustees have no power whatever to make any payment to the Government in connection with the exchange. Assuming that,the position was such that the Trustees ought to : make a payment to the Government, ' an Enabling Act would have to be passed by the House before the Trustees could make the payment. Apropos of the question, it is interesting to recall how the Crown's site in Queen Street came into the possession of the Crown. It was sold to the Government by the Masterton Trust Lands Trustees—part of the half-acre on which the Post Office and other buildings are now erected--on the representation of the Government that they intended to .erect on the land a Post and Telegraph Office —and a Courthouse. Had the Government not stated that such was their intention it may reasonably be argued that the Trustees to-day would have owned the Post Office corner. Many years after—in 1889—when there seems to have been a doubt in regard to the validity of the title-deed of part of Town Acre No. 2](the halfacre in question), Parliament, by passing Clause 30 of "The Masterton Trust Lands Act, 1889," made the deed valid and effectual l , and in the Third Schedule of the same Act we read, under "Trusts:" "Conveyance of part Town Acre No. 2 for a Telegraph Office, Post Office, and Courthouse." obtained possessiun' of the land ; upon' the plea that they were going to erect public buildings thereon. In recent years they found that the section was not sufficiently large, and suggested that the Trustees should provide them with a more suitable site in exchange for the section in ' Queen Street. This the Trustees agreed to do, and it was not suggested and not contemplated that the exchange should be other than on a basis of equal value. t If the Government decline to carry out the agreement they will certainly be guilty of a most distinct breach of good faith.