GERMAN AMBITION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 188, 4 May 1908, Page 7

GERMAN AMBITION.

SHIPFING i DESIGNS. NEW GUINEA AND AUSTRALIA. GOLD-MINING RIGHTS. • DT TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. (Rec. May 3, 4.27 p.m.) Berlin, May 2. i The Budget Committee of the Reichst ( ag, s by 14 votes to 13, adopted tho Now Guinea 3 mail service vote. t Herr Dornburg, Director of Colonial 3 Affairs, urged that it was desirable tho Yap Island should bo a port of call. Tho discussion showed that the mail line , services between Australia and tho Far East , wero chiefly design'ed to benefit by tho subsidy. It was expected that if the shipping - company advertised itself in Australian , waters for a few. years, German enterprise would secure a larger share of Australian i trade than hitherto. The speech of.Mr. Price (Premier of South > Australia) at Livorpool, contrasting the readi- ) ness with which Gorman shipping avails itself > of improved facilities at Australian ports, ' compared with the indifference of British ! companies, is attracting comment in Berlin. i . Herr Benningson, a former Governor of German New Guinea, referring to the existi ence of gold there; suggests that diggers of ' any nationality should bo allowed to mine, i ' Tho "Cologne Gazette" suggests a 'discus- > sion as to British and Gorman mining rights ■ along the frontier of tho British and Gorman . spheres in Now .Guinea. The paper outlines proposals for tho rectification of the frontier, i making the Hira River the' naturaUboundary. A London cable*message of April 14 stated:— "A Bill lias been submitted'to tho Federal Council, Berlin, authorising the additional i subsidy of .500,000 marks (,£25,000) to the-North ; German Lloyd Company. The subsidy is in consideration of a monthly service from Sydney to New Guinea, Singapore, Hongkong, and Japan, calling at Yap, in the Carolines, which, is to be maintained until October,' 1914." Commenting on this, the "Sydney. Morning Herald" ' states: ("Advices from Bremen wore recently received in.'Sydney, stating that .the negotiations which bad been going on for a long ..timo between tho directors' or tho Nord- .' deutscher-Lloyd - and the German Government •respecting the granting of State aid,for tho; maintenance of a regular line of mail steamers between the German protectorate in Now Guinea and Australia and Japan had at ■ last come'to a conclusion. In tho subvention contract with the N.D.L'. respecting' tho establishment of a mail steamship sorvice to Eastern Asia and Australia, : concluded, in 06tobor, 1898, ono proviso was that a branch line from Singapore to tho German. pVotectorate in New G.uinea, .via the ports.in the Sunda,Archipelago, should, be maintained. This branch line was accordingly started and kept running until thn year'l9o4; it was then suppressed,.and . in its place ,a regular service'between; the protectorate'and Japan and Australia was set up. - "This, Australian-Japan line, with, at-'first, . departures every six weeks jand latterly every four weeks, proved of gi;eat value,not ,only to 1 German" New Guinea but to German trade generally in the Far East, but its financial re- .' suits were .not such as to induce tho Nord- , deutscher-Lloyd to keep the sorvice ' going. ' On the otlior hand," the benefits which had accrued from it ,to the people of 'Now Guinea'created an-ardent desiro on ; the. part of the inhabitants of. the protectorate'to; see a regular coil-, nection with Singapore oiice more established. Such a line is of extreme- importance in tho view of the . export trado in copra, .' the principal production of New, Guinoaj it also facilitates: tho immigration' of labourers, and the importation of animals for, breeding purposes from Singapore, into the Sunda Islahds. This New Guinea-Singapore line is accordingly to. be reinstated, and a greater number' of ports than'formerly are to bo included in its 6phero of operations. Thus arises' the necessity of granting, to the N.D.L. a further annual allowance, put down at ,500,000"marks (.425,000), for the ( upkoep ofji monthly service between Sydney', ' New'' 1 Guinea', I '.'•/Hongkong,/"'and', Japan. This 'supplementary- contract is to 'run-for the'term of the main contact with tho N.D.L!, that is, until the year 1914."