PACIFIC POSSESSIONS

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 15, 17 July 1918, Page 7

PACIFIC POSSESSIONS

GERMAN CONTROLUNTHINK ABLE

SPEECHES BY NEW ZEALAND

MINISTERS.

(AUSTRALIAN-NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, 15th July. The British Empire League gave a luncheon to Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward at Claridge's Hotel. Replying to the toast of his health, .Mr. Massey said that though the problems of the war had not yet been solved, it was not too soon to begin dealing with the problems of peace. The Empire's citizens had upheld its dignity and prestige in the war, and would do so in •peace. He feared German intrigue more than German force of arms. There must ■be an increase in Empire production, .in order to bear the financial burdens, and also considerable emigration should be encouraged. It would be the duty of legislators to encourage the working up of raw materials, and prevent unfair competition by their- enemies. Much would •hav-e to be dono to improve communications between different carts of the Empire. Labour and Capital must work more harmoniously. He favoured profit-shar-ing. It was possibls in war. We were stronger than the enemy in every department. The Allies would not be influenced by the enemy's threats over Belgium. They had made tip their minds to win, however long the war lasted.

Sir Joseph Ward disagreed with those who thought it premature to discuss possible peace terms. If the nation knew why it went to war, then, logically, it must be able to decide what its peace terms would be. An uneasy suspicion had been aroused that the German Pacific islands might be the subject of negotiation at the Peace Conference. The New Zealand delegates came to England with a positive mandate that the public would never tolerate the handing back of Samoa. Under no circumstances must any such thing 'occur. It was unthinkable that Germany should over again got a foothold in the" Pacific, where she ha-d been an interloper from the first. Jf such a calamity befell us the bonds of Empire would be brought to straining point. The people of the Motherland should understand the Dominions' point of view. They should realise that this is no stand-and-deliver threat, but the expression of a, desp-seated conviction, upon a definite ideal, and cultivated for half a century, often in the teeth of scant sympathy or encouragement from -the Imperial authorities. He hoped that this sublime indifference to the importance of ownership of n. fow small islands in the Pacific would disappear for ever. How would the British peoplo view the occupation by Germany of the Islo of Man, the Channel Islands, th| Hebrides, or the Orkneys? In 189Q England failed to realise the value of Heligoland. Wae there anyone to-day who approved of the cession of Heligoland? The answer to that question justified part of_ our case as regarded the German possessions in the Pacific. She would never have been there but for the masterly negligence of British statesmen.

Those overseas disliked Germany's methods of colonisation and their treatment of the native races, and ako because the instincts of German ambition were a standing menace to their eecurity.