PACIFIC ISLANDS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 26, 31 January 1912, Page 7

PACIFIC ISLANDS.

PROPOSED JAPANESE STEAM SERVICE. NO REASON TO WARRANT IT. By Telegraph.— Press Association. — Copyright. SYDNEY, 30th January. The officials at the Japanese Consulate profess to know nothing of the reported new line of steamers to the Pacific Islands, to which an official of the British Embassy to Japan, who is visiting Sydney, stated the Japanese Government had offered a subsidy. Mr. Cogswell, Deputy -British Commissioner in the Gilbert Islands, who is at present in Sydney, says there is no reason, so far as he knows, why Japan •thould run steamers to the islands, as the trade was not sufficient to warrant such a step. Further, Japan could gain nothing by seeking to settle the islands, as any attempt to seize them would embroil her with Britain, Germany, and France. Japanese activity in the islands cannot be • directed towards trade or settlement, and must have some other object. Tho only possible danger *to Australia is that they might want to creato secret debits and coaling stations, which would be of great strategic importance in the event of an attack on Australia.