A LITERARY CORNER

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9692, 21 June 1917, Page 4

A LITERARY CORNER

(R.A.L.) “THE NEW PACIFIC.” C. B. Fletcher. (Macmillan and Co., St. Martin’s street, London.) Men everywhere talking of the Gorman colonics badly want information to support their efforts to prevent the return of these colonics to Germany. This book supplies the want for the great island region of the Pacific. The turn given to the terms of peace by the upheaval in Kussia. makes the need for the study of this information exceptionally Urgent. It is indeed, quite on the cards that the Germanic Empire will get back every acre of tlvo lost colonies unless a strong spirit is aroused in Australasia and South Africa'. The sudden acceptance of “No annexation” by the British and American Governments i« startling, and thcro are men in Britain and the United States who already are declaring that ‘‘no annexation” cpvcrs tho case for the return of the German colonies. What is more, they are denouncing as shameful greed the insistence of the oversea population on their retention. Every unit of public opinion wants tho help of facts to support that insistence. Mr Fletcher—a prominent Australian journalist—tells tuo political story of the islands in considerable detail, dwelling on the long rivalry of British and Gorman interests to the final German annexation of what ought, but for the wrong-headed ness of various British Governments, to have long ago been part of tho British Empire.. He names the Empire builders of our side ufho resisted this conclusion—Sir George Grey, Sir William Macgrcgor, Robert Louis Stevenson, the Kev. George Brown and .others; sketches their characters, details their efforts, laments their disappointment. He is careful at the same time to do justice to the splendid work of Sir William Maogrogor, who by his unauthorised annexation of what is now British, New Guinea aroused the public opinion of Australasia, and made it one upon this important subject. The German side is not neglected, nor the history of the commercial development under the strong hand of -Theodor Weber, the representative of the great house of Godefroy. Also are laid bare the schemes of Gorman wprld dominion which included 'the eventual annexation of’ Australia to bo’,' the centre of a oreat German. Pacific Empire. As Mr Hughes, the Commonwealth Prime Minister, pithily remarks in his preface:— The history of the last forty years in this quarter of tile globe is full of extraordinary interest because Germany has been brewing ..her devil’s broth for the benefit of civilisation in an ocean vyhich sooner or later must become the balancing centre of the world's trade and development. This is not rhetoric, hut cold truth. Germany ,laid her plans against Australia as she did. against Prance and Belgium, and Russia and Serbia. The author points out that the conquest of the German colonies has produced the situation so strongly striven for by. the men he lias quoted. That, too, was the aim of the ■ statesmen or New Zealand, from the day, of Grey onwards. The Stout-Vogel_ Government actually tried to anticipate the German seizure of Samoa, but were prevented by the British Government from repeating the far-reaching exploit of Sir William Macgregor, though they had the warm support of the chiefs and people. Later on the Scddon Government brought about the addition of the Cook Islands to the Empire, which was proclaimed by tho Duke of York in Auckland just sixteen years ago. This secured the remnants left by Germany. . Now the whole of the great region of South Sea Islands is, with the exception of the French possessions, in British hands. There was therefore in sight a “New Pacific,” tho probability of a vast Empire. Hence the title of this book. Viscount Bryce testifies to its importance in a special preface following tho author’s usual preliminary. And Mr Hughes supplies a stimulating “foreword,” from which wo have quoted the above striking passage. In this “foreword” he throws a bright light on the machinations of Germany, persistent for many years, and on the success with which these had fastened fetters on Australian commerce and mining production. It is a subject on which he can speak, for his great fight to break these fetters, not for tho benefit of Australia alone, but to the advantage, of the Empire, is now famous in every part of the Empire, and nowhere ’ more appreciated than in London, where so much of that work of his was done. All things were pointing to this “New Pacific” when the new peace terms came as a bolt out of the blue. The Pacific is once more menaced with German dominion. That is the plain English of “no annexation.” According to this new departure, every German colony captured by British, Australian, South African, and Japanese arms is to return to Germany If the new pacifists have their way. This is greater than an oversea question. It means the impossibility of an adequate peace, and tho impossibility reinforces mightily the arguments of the oversea side of the case for tho retention of the German colonies. The overseas must agitate forthwith in protesting against surrender to the deniands of the blind Russian Revolutionaries, who have failed so far to sec the full significance of the German assault on the freedom of the world. AVe do not know a work which will better help such an agitation than the “New Pacific” of Mr C. Brunsdon Fletcher.