GERMAN CRIMINALS. NEVER INTENDED TO SEND THEM TO PACIFIC.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 44, 21 February 1908, Page 7

GERMAN CRIMINALS. NEVER INTENDED TO SEND THEM TO PACIFIC.

OFFICIAL STATEMENT. A SCHEME THAT WAS BLOCKED. By Telegraph.— Frees Association.— Copyright. (Received February 21, 8.20 a.m.) BERLIN, 20th February. Speaking in the Reichstag, Herv Dernberg, Director -of the German Colonial Office, stated that it was never proposed to transport to German colonies in the Pacific Ocean criminals under sentence, but only persons who had undergone imprisonment, in order to give them an opportunity of rehabilitation. However, the scheme had been blocked by financial difficulties, without mentioning international considerations. Some discussion was caused in Anstralia last month by a report from Berlin ihat tho Imperial party in tho Reichstag was asking the German Government to modify tho penal code in ortlcr to provide for transportation to tho German colonies in tho Pacific of long-sentence criminals who were physically and mentally adapted for removal. From the outset the German Consul-General in Sydney did not attach any importance to the Tumour, pointing out that under the reciprocity agreement between Britain and Germany both countries undertook not to establish any penal settlement in or transport convicts to the Western Pacific.