LATE NEWS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 76, 26 September 1914, Page 8

LATE NEWS.

*. KAISER WILHELM'S LAND TAKEN BY AUSTRALIAN TROOPS NO OPPOSITION OFFERED HEALTH OF TROOPS EXCELLENT (By Telegraph.— Press Absocitition.— Copyright.) (Received September 26, 1 p.m.) MELBOURNE, This Day. It is officially announced that the Australian troops occupied Kaiser Wilhelm Land on the 24th without opposition, and the British flag hoisted. The principal officers of the German administration were absent. Four officers and thirteen others surrendered and subscribed to the oath of neutrality. Of these the officials will be tern- ! porarily engaged to assist in the administration. The others are planters, j missionaries, and business men. ' ■ Forty German fighting men left a fortnight ago for the purpose of reinforcing the German troops in New Britain, but arrived after its capitulation. They are now prisoners at Simpsonhaven. The health of the Australian troops is excellent. This message was delayed by the censor. [The previous operations of which accounts have been cabled from Australia were all located in New Britain, an island in the Bismarck Archipelago, eastward of New Guinea. On the northeastern end of this island are Rabaul (the seat of Government of the German possessions in and about New Guinea), eituated on Simpsonshafen, and Herbertshohe, about ten miles south-east of .Rabaul. Kaiser Wilhelm' s Land is the German territory on the big island of New Guinea itself. The area of this territory is about 70,000 square miles, and its population is about 531,000 natives, with, in ,1913, 283 whites. Its chief town is Friedrich Wilheimshafen, the old capital of the mainland territory. It is on a beautiful harbour, but has long had an evil reputation for unhealthiness. The climate of German New Guinea and the Bismarcks is described as probably the worst in the Pacific. The heat is intense, and bad fevers abound. The chief product is copra. In 1912 the exports of the Protectorate amounted to £358,184.]