A PURE PACIFIC

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 27, 31 January 1919, Page 2

A PURE PACIFIC

MR. HUGHES'S IDEAS

KEEPING THE GERMAN OUT.

Mr. W. M. Hughes, Prime Minister of the Commomweakih, stated, in an article published in New York, that the Commonwealth will insist on its war debt being paid by Germany. Each of the Allied countries will have its own views as to the methods by which reparation can be exacted, remarks the Melbourne Argus. In the German Pacific Islands, so near to Australia, there is "sufficient wealth to meet a great portion of our war debt. In phosphates alone there is unexploited wealth of ■ great value. Touching upon this the Interstate Commission, in its report, says of Nauru, an island on the equator -north-east of Papua:—This island belonged to Germany, and was administered with the Marshall group. Shortly after the outbreak of the war it was ■taken into occupation by the military force's of/the Commonwealth. Though: under German , -control, the practical ownership was and is British. The origin of British interests ther6 furnishes an exception to the supposed backwardness of the British traders and investors. It is thus described by Mr.' King, the representative ■ in. Australia^ of the Pacific Phosphate Company, Limited :— In prospecting in the Marshall Group, then under German protection, a deposit was discovered on Nauru (Pleasant Island). The trading and exploitation rights in this group were held from the German Government by the Jaluit Gessellschaft. The Pacific Island Company was successful, however, in acquiring from, that firm, with the approval of the German Government, the right to'raise and export fertilising substances from the Marshall Group.. In view of the large additional capital required to work this deupsit and, to extend operations at Ocean Island, the Pacific Phosphate Company, Limited, was formed in 1902 to take over th« business of the Pacific Islands Company, Limited. Tlms company's concession .for Ocean Island is held from the British Government, and that for Nauru from the German Government, under agreement with the Jahiit Gessellschaft.

RICHES IN PHOSPHATE,

It is owing solely to the fact that Nauru belonged to Germany that the Pacific Phosphate Company came into contact with the Jahiit Gessellsehaft and the German , Government. Through its enterpriss the company, obtained control of this valuable property, to the benefit of itself and of British interests generally, in striking contrast to what before the war was a general process of German penetration .elsewhere. Lord Balfour of Bnrleigh was elected to the board in 1911, and, on the death of Lord Stanmore in. 1912, became chairman of the company. With him have been associated as directors Lord Grey, Sir William Lever, and other prominent British-bf.rn business men. Owing to the acquisition by us of the Nauru concession, a certain number of the shares of the company'were held, by enemy subjects. Particulars of these have heen furnished to the British Government.

. A month after the outbreak of war the company's British staff was expelled from Nauru by the German Government and transferred to Ocean Island. Two months later, in November, 1914, by arrangement with the Navy Department, an armed guard from the Australian Expeditionary Force at Rabanl was carried to Nauru by one of the company's steamers and the British flag hoisted. By the same steamer the company's British staff returned from Ocean Island. The German Government officials and the twenty-three German employees were brought to Australia on the company's steamer, and interned.

GERMAN PENETRATION.

One witness giving evidence before the Oomraission said:—

"After the war there should be a magnificent opportunity for Australia if she got possession of Nauru and manufac-; tured cheap fertilisers for the farmers here. lam sure they would double their output, and this would go a long way towards paying for the war. The price of £3 a ton delivered on the wharf was> the price given me by Mr. Edwards, the company's manager. Its actual output for 1914 was between 90,000 and 100,000 tons,; though the estimate was ISO,OOO tons. Before the war a, large proportion went to Germany and a great proportion tb Japan . . The Government could allot a'company an area, as is'done afc Ocean Islaind. ... My idea is that if the Government could get hold of that island and manufacture fertilisers the' people hero Would get them cheaply."' Speaking generally of, the Pacific Islands, the report points out that the former German possessions are very cX" tensive. They included Kaiser Wilhelm's Land (New Guinea) 70,000 square miles, the Bismarck Archipelago, » portion of the Solomon Islands, the Marshall Islands, and the Caroline group. Of the Samoan group, Germany was in possession of * Suvaii and? Upola. The chief product of the islands •of the Pacific is copra, except in Fiji, where the sugar inau&try ia the mainstay. The

Norddeutscher Lloyd Company before the war had-obtained a monopoly of the* carrying trade for the whole of the German New. Guinea possessions. The German possessions were fortunate in that they were almost self-contained in the matter of labour supply. They had a further advantage in that by the agreement with Great Britain it was open to the Germans to recruit labour from the i Solomon Islands, but not to the British to recruit it from German New Guinea or other German possessions. In Samoa, described by a former* German Governor ■as "the pearl of the Pacific," German interests were represented by the Deutsche Handols und Plantagen Gessellschaft, commonly known aa the Long Handle firm. German shipping was subsidised by its Government. The Norddeut3cher Lloyd, by instituting a service to Sydney, drove Messrs.' Bums, Philp, and Co. out of the New Guinea and German islands trade. During the compe^ titiou a director of the Norddeutscher Lloyd went to Rabaul, and undertook, in consideration. of the settlers agreeing to sign undertakings to ship exclusively with that company's steamers for five years, ,■ to grant very favourable shipping conditions, and specially low through rates to and from Germany without the option of a Britiah port, but with the option of selling copra in Sydney, and cancelling the through bill of lading. It, however, did not pay to sell in Sydney with the through freight concessions. The Germans were quite successful. The fleet was excellent, the subsidy ample, the cargo assured, and the organisation complete. Australian competitors had to withdraw.