TONGA PROTECTORATE.

Evening Star, Issue 11265, 12 June 1900, Page 2

TONGA PROTECTORATE.

Press Aoociatkm-By Telegraph—Copyright.' SYDNEY, June 12. Mr Basil Thomson, being interviewed in reference to hia declaration of the British protectorate at Tonga, traversed the recent statements of the. New Zealand papers that no protectorate flag was raised ; that no reply had been made to the British salute ; and that he (Thomson) had been too considerate ,and deferential in approaching the King. Mr Thomson said these statements would indicate that the Natives had declined to return the British salute, whereas they were not required to do so, nor would such a salute have been in accordance with established usage. No protectorate flag was raised for the same reason. The whole ceremony was carried out in routine fashion, and in lull, with the willing consent of the King aid his councillors. The actual facta are that ho succeeded in obtaining all that the Imperial Government sought, and the Natives, so far from objecting, were quite satisfied to enter into the , treaty, which simply serves to keep any other nation but Great Britain out of their" territory, and secured to them their own land and other property under their own local Government. The Imperial Government had no desire to administer the government of such a petty cluster of islands, but they wanted a coaling station in the vicinity. The protectorate was of a qualified character, and that over Tonga is the only one of its kind in the world, with the exception of Zanzibar.