GERMANY'S COLONIAL AMBITIONS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XII, Issue 1174, 15 February 1919, Page 3

GERMANY'S COLONIAL AMBITIONS.

NEW ZEALAND'S DECREE. In view of the recent discussions at the Peace Conference in Paris, the following summary of an address delivered bv Sir Joseph Ward to the British Empire League last Juiy, and reprinted in a recent number of the American Current History, is of interest: — On one occasion Bismarck put this question to the British Government: '•What parts of the Australian continent are claimed by Britain?'' Do the people of the Motherland know- that an a'.tcmpt was made to Germanise South Australia Have they ever heard of the "Dutch Heritage-" and the "World Empire" scheme of the early eighties with its inner and outer circles, the. former of which was to embrace the African coast and the latter the Australian colonies and the Falkland Islands? I recall this to show how limitless and all-pervadjng have been German aims and ambitions, and how that must be so again if we lapse into indifference As long as Germany has a foothold in the Pacific she will ever stand a menace to our security and our peaceful development. German penetration in the Pacific was brought about in thcearly eighties during the international scramble for new territory. "We out there had seen the danger for years but it required an infinitude of patience and the acceptance of many snubs and rebuffs before the Motherland could be induced to annex Fiji and other territmics.

After recalling the action of Queensland with regard to taking formal possession of New Guinea in 1883, which was not approved by the Secretary of State for the Colonies at that time, i.ord Derby, and after giving illustrations of the difficulties and complications which ensued, Sir Joseph referred to the Intercolonial Conference, which met in December. 1882, and passed the following :'-•••.cion:—"The further acquisition oi dominion in the Pacific south of the Equator by any foreign Power would be highly detrimental to the safety and well-being of the British possessions in Australasia, and injurious to the interests of the Empire." Despite that, Germany, in August, IRB4, annexed part of New Guinea, and what was the attitude of the British Government then? Lord Granville was "able to assure Count Munster that Her Majesty's Government had no desire to oppose* the extension of Germ.-jn colonisation in the islands of the South Seas wpich are unoccupied by any civilised Power. . . . The " extension of some form of British authority in New Guinea will only embrace that part of the island which specially interests the Australasian colonies, without prejudice to any territorial question, beyond those limits." That might l>o desoril>cd a? effusiveness to Germany and partial surrender to the colonial point of view when it was too late. Such was the story of the advent of Germany into the Pacific. A similar story might be told of Samoa. What he had said already was enough to justify this contention that the present attitude of New Zealand and Australia regarding the possible return of the former German colonies was no flash-in-the-pan of a hastily-formed and ill-con-sidered opinion, but was the latest and most logical outcome of a mature, welidefincd and well-reasoned policy of very long standing.