ANNEXATION PROBLEM.

Northern Advocate, 16 February 1912, Page 5

ANNEXATION PROBLEM.

SIR F. IM THURN'S VIEWS.

(Received Feb. 16", 10 a..m) LONDON, Feb. 15

Sir Everard F. im Thurn, in an article in the "Quarterly Review" on "Fiji as a Crown Colony/ states that the native question is complicated by the introduction of colored labor, while some Australians reprobated and wrongly held the view that it was better for the Islands to be left undeveloped than by natives from elsewhere. Manual labor in the tropics must largely be colored, and importation is essential where indigenous la,bor is insufficient.

Besides Canada's Australia's, and' New Zealand's interests in the Pacific Islands, the United States, Japan, Germany, and France were also concerned, and are strengthening their posilions and influence. It is politic that Britain should do the same.

There are strong reasons why the Pacific Islands at present should not he annexed either by Australia or New Zealand, despite their geographical position an! commercial interests but the time had come to assist Fiji ■ towards the point where it could pass I from a Crown Colony and join a United I Dominion of Australasia I