PRIDE AND PURSE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 191, 7 May 1908, Page 7

PRIDE AND PURSE.

— 9 MONEY LIMITS TO GERMAN AMBITION. PACIFIC SUBSIDIES. FINANCIAL POSITION COMPELS ! CURTAILMENT. DV TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT(Rec. May 6, 10.47 p.m.) J , Berlin, May 6. 1 The debate on tho New Guinea mail subsidy led the Roikhstag to eliminate the proposed services between Gorman Now ( Guinea and Singapore, and to reduce tho pro- , posed additional grant of £25,000 in aid of ] tho so-called Australiau-Japaneso line to ' £11,500. . ( ECONOMY IMPERATIVE. ' ; Herr Kanitz (Conservative) urged that in view of tho seriousness of the Empire's financial embarrassments, strict economy was im- ' perative. Up to the present, tho North Ger- . man Lloyds subventions totalled £5,500,000. ] The Company, therefore, was scarcely a necessitous undertaking. Herr Hormann, Radical Doputy for Bro 1 men, declared that unless the Company rei ooived further Government assistance, i British shipping would benefit by'the conse- 1 j quont decrease in efficiency on the part of the Company, which ought to bo subsidised as long as its services were not remunerative. HERR DERNBURC'S APPEAL. Tho Director of Colonial Affairs, Herr Dernburg, describing tho Bill as an act of ' colonial policy, argued that tbo commercial prospects of Gorman New Guinea warranted | tho outlay. ■ He emphasised the fact that r German oolonies in tho South Seas imported ' £150,000 worth of German goods. The prosperity of tho islands would, ■ he addod, | increase during tho next decade, when tho copra trade .would be fully' developed. Herr'Dernburg continued that tho North German' Lloyds Company's services in tho South Seas entailed loss. It was highly im-j portant to rotain regular communications between Australia and German New i Guinea and tho German Islands. Increased trade implied increased customs. COMPETITION OF AUSTRALIA. Australian competition in tho South Seas was very, keen. This competition must drivo them out of the field, since it would , ( seriously restrict the market for German j goods, unless largo and fast German steamships wero availablo to maintain comrinmication with tho German colonies.Herr Dernburg added that if tho German ' flag disappeared, it would create a bad im- . pression. , Tile subsidy, was asked in tho intcrests of the German South Sea Islands, ! lest, for the sake of a paltry sum, tho flag '. would lose the respect to which it was ontitled. MEW GUINEA FRONTIER. ' GERMAN DESIGNS. AN ADVANTAGE CLAIMED. (Reo. May 7, 0.25 a.m.) • Berlin,. May 6. 'With regard to tlio : suggestions of tho "Cologne Gazette" as .to rectification of tho Anglo-German frontier in New Guinea, 'by making tho Hira rivor tho natural boundary, a German semiofficial telegraph, agency, in ; recording the opinions of' Australian newspapers relative to the .suggestions, adds that [ Germany, by virtue of her control of the lower course of the River Hira, holds the j advantage. It is for her, rather than for ( Australia, to imposo conditions in any coming negotiations. ■ V . ! ' '