CLEARING THE PACIFIC

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15747, 23 October 1914, Page 4

CLEARING THE PACIFIC

The occupation by (ho Japanese of tho Marshall Islands and the East and West Caroline Archipelago closes the book of German colonisation in the, Pacific. It has already been explained that the seizure of these islands by the Japanese has a purely military and naval significance, and that they will be handed over to Britain when the time is opportune. The action of our Japanese allies in this particular marks another stop in the naval plan of campaign against the enemy's warships still roaming in the Pacific. One by one the islands which these ships might use as bases, and from which they might take coal and provisions, have been seized. Samoa was first occupied, then New Britain, then Kaiser Wilhelra's Land. The wireless station at Yap, in the Carolines, was destroyed, and now the. Caroline Archipelagos and the Marshall Islands have been taken. Presumably the Pelew and Marianne Islands, which lie within the West Caroline Archipelago, are also being looked after . by the Japanese, in which, case, there is not a single island of the German Pacific domain which is not garrisoned by or under the surveillance of the allied forces. One nf the reasons given by Japan for declaring war on Germany was that, German I warships in Eastern waters were j threatening British and Japanese j commerce. It is, therefore, quite in accordance with her ultimatum that Japan should co-operate in cutting off the supplies and seizing the bases

of sucht,ves'sel&. : ' . All enemy ships at large in the Pacific are now reduced to the status of fugitives, and must soon be forced either to sur-

render or seek a neutral haven and be dismantled. The Marshalls consist of two chains of lagoon islands, with a coloured population of 1.3,000 and a sprinkling of Europeans. There are plantations of cocoanuts, but the chief export is phosphate. The Caroline, Pelew, and Marianne Islands were purchased by Germany from Spain in 1899, for £840,000. The principal exports are copra and phosphate; but it is probable that their chief value to Germany was strategic. Indeed, it has become increasingly clear during the past few years that Germany came to the Pacific not as a colonising Power, or with honest, neighbourly intentions, but with piratical designs, to execute which naval bases were necessary. _____