PROBLEM OF THE PACIFIC

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15033, 5 January 1911, Page 7

PROBLEM OF THE PACIFIC

HIGH COMMISSIONER'S OFFICE.

PROPOSAL FOR REMOVAL,

CLAIMS OF SYDNEY.

Pmu Association—By Telejraph—Copyright.

SYDNEY, January 4. The Sydney Morning Herald states that an important movement is afoot with a view to having the office of High Commissioner of the Western Pacific removed from Fiji to Sydney, the proposal being that the position shall eventually become a Commonwealth instead of an Imperial one. The paper adds: " The question, it is understood, has already received the attention of the Federal Government, but it in realised to be a somewhat difficult task to induce the British authorities to recogniee that Australian interests in the Pacific have absorbed and outgrown Imperial intercuts."

Commenting on the proposed change in the control of the Pacific, the Sydney Morning Herald says: "We can only regard the Pacific as a natural barrier between ourselves and the Asiatic East. We have all along argued what is now an admitted fact: that questions of geography make Fiji a most undesirable place of residence for a High Commissioner. Now that tho Islands are being recognised as promising fields for the planter, there is all the more need that a definite policy should be pursued right through the Pacific, and the Commissioner be so placed that he can control such a policy at any point of its application. Sydney is such a natural centre, and with improvement in communication its claims will be more obvious."