IN THE SUN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVII, Issue 9052, 24 July 1917, Page 5

IN THE SUN

GERMANY'S VAIN DREAMS

DEMAND FOR SOUTH SEA COLONIES.

Professor Paul Pre.uss, a German explorer, who combined botanical studies with political business ■ for ■ the German Foreign Office, contributes .to tho Hamburger "Nachrichten" an article called "Central Africa: But .the South Sea Abo.'' The, professor is a director of the;. German New • Guinea' .Company, .and . while .approving of a large ■ African empire, he reiterates the demand for: the retention of the South Sea Colonies.

He writes: "A self-contained Central Africa, stretching as far as possible to the- west, is universally declared to be desirable and also attainable, and the. possibility of a land connection of Central Africa with Constantinople by way of Egypt makes this scheme seem particularly attractive. But World-economics and world-politics cannot be pursued with Central Africa alone. We need other bases also for our world trade and bur sea traffic. We shall have difficulty in protecting our trade interests in South America and Central Africa against the advance of the North Americans and the Japanese, of whom the latter have seized the shipping trade on the whole/west coast. But in the Far East, in the Pacific Ocean, we have for three decades possessed a rising little colonial empire, and it, would be an unforgivable and irreparable mistake if we were to abandon our South Sea colonies, and to withdraw from the Pacific, merely because the great settlement of interests has begun among tne three Great Powers— Japan, North America, and EnglandAustralia, and because we shall have to fear that at some later date we should come into conflict with these Powers."

Apparently, Germany's -object is to make mischief in the Pacific, for the professor continues: "If the three Powers were to arrive' at a perfect and permanent agreement about the. Pacific Ooean and China, and if Russia also were to join them; our case would be hopeless. But: so long as Japan ahd America oppose one - another in, more or less open hostility, and as long as Australia sees in Japan—whom England has summoned to the protection of her interests in the East—her most dangerous competitor and opponent— as long as these tilings are so, Germany has no occasion to budge from the Pacific. A temporary occupation of our colonies by our enemies—and in future it will probably not be so easy as it was this time—is of no decisive importance. Only ask tho settlers in the Bismark Archipealgo and in Kaiser Wilhelmsland whether they want to withdraw because of the merely temporary occupation of the, Protectorates by our enemies. The disappearaace of the German war flag from New Guinea and from the group of islands in the Pacific would mean an irreparable loss of prestige and worldpower for the German Empire all over the East. If we lost our naval bases there we fall to the rank of mere carriers and traders, in whose face the door can always be slammed. The French in Africa have taught us sufficiently how that, is done " Professor Preuss gives a glowing picture of the economic possibilities of the South Sea Colonies, and concludes that "if Germany recovers her South Sea Colonies she can without any great anxiety resume the competition for commercial supremacy (sic) in the Pacific in the grand new age of commercial policy in the grand style."