PACIFIC ISLANDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3337, 27 February 1918, Page 36

PACIFIC ISLANDS.

lii a speech at Kelburn in connection with the candidature of Mr J. P. Luke, the Prime Minister'said:— ''There is another very important point that has to be considered when the Imperial War Cabinet and tho Imperial Conference meet, and that is the question of German possessions in the Pacific I know perfectly well■"■ that/there is going to be a tremendous struggle over those possessions. You know what has appeared in the cablo messages during tho past few weeks. Germany does not intend to ,r ive up those possessions if she can hokf them. We do not want those islands because of their value, but we want to retain control of them, because wo know perfectly well that if those possessions— Samoa, New Guinea, and the other islands of the Pacific —if they go back to Germany, there is no question that Germany will make some of them the headquarters of a German fleet, and that would fte to the danger and detriment of the British people in these latitudes. There is the position, and it is necessary that New Zeala-nd and Australia should be represented at the Imperial Councils. So far as I am concerned, I am prepared to do my duty on the other part of the world. Ido not. as I have said, want to go Home, but if Parliament says that Sir Joseph Ward and I ought to go Home, we will do our duty while there, not only for the whole Empire, but for the people we specially represent."