NO GERMANS IN PACIFIC.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14712, 18 September 1918, Page 9

NO GERMANS IN PACIFIC.

NEW ZEALAND'S DEMANDS

SPEECH BY SIR JOSEPH WARD

The 'Dominion's point of view pa regards the Pacific- Islands was plainly stated by S.iy Joseph Ward m a speech at a luncheon given by .the- British Empire League at ClaridgeV Hotel, London. ' • ; . •

Sir Joseph said that il was necessary for him to touch on the conditions- of peace which must follow the end of the war,* more particularly as they affected New 1 Zealand . and all other: countries that bordered on the. Pacific Ocean. New Zealand, the most .iW-iluiig post. i>f the Emipue> comparatively small m size, but rich m potential wealth, -with under 1,200,000 of white population, had mobilised 110,000 men for the Avar, -and he conceived it to be his duty, to make the public of Britain acquainted with the minds of the New Zealand people on that, -great question. . Indeed, they had come with a positive mandate to do.' so. Resolutions, had beeii, passed public meetings liomeiid to end of the country before' they left for ' England, telling them that the public would never tolerate the banding back of Samoa to Germany. An uneasy suspicion had been aroused' that the former German colonies in* the Pacific Ocean might bo the subject of negotiation' at the Peace I Conference, and that m certain circumstances Samoa, New Guinea, 'and the Marshall Islands jnight revert to Germany. '-•'■" ■ •■• ■ ■*■ • f-

"We say . plainly," ' said Sir Joseph, "on, behalf of the people of New Zea.la.ad—and the people of Australia are entirely with us m that respect — that "m.- iio cu ; cumstaiices. niiist " any. such thing- occur. !On no question of public policy has opinion m the Dominions ever been more clear or united. The opinion of six millions of people is never negligible., least of all when, they have earned on tlit? battlenelcls of the Empire the right to be heard: "(Cheers.) It was unthinkable to the. people m the outlying portions nf 'the Empire, he proceeded, that Germany should ever again be permitted to gain a foothok' m the Pacific, where she was an interloper from the. first. Should • sufeli a

calamity be allowed to befall. New Zealand the' majority of its "people *r\vouLd feel inclined to despair altogether df the -Mother- Country, and the bonds of. Eni"pire, which the! war had knit so closely together, would be brbught to straining point. God forbid that such a contingency should arise, but it was necessary to be frank. , There were times wlieji frankness m speech was an- indispensable bulwark of .national safety. The people of th& Motherland must' under sland the. Dominions- 'point of view. They should -realise that that was' no !?. 'Stand* and delivers"-. freak of fancy, 'but the ex.pi.iessi.6n of" iv deep-seate<l "conviction on a definite' ideal,- .which ''they' had not ceased" to. cultivate for half a cientury, often m the teeth of scant sympathy or encouragement :from ths Imperial authorities. He hoped that the attitude of sublime indifference re^aiding the importance- of the ownership of "a few small islands m th* Pacific would disappear, for ever. Sir Joseph contiruued : Let niio ask the people of the Homeland ' a simple question, "How would you view the occupation by Germany of the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, the Hebrides the Orkney or the Shetland Islands? Answer me that. . With what feelings would the people of Britain contemplate such a ;c6ntingency?-. One. might say that Samoa was much farther away from New Zealand than any gi the. islands I have mentioned' are from England ; but what v is distance m " the ligh ! lof modem scientific progress? What will be th© ultimate limit of the range of action of submarines and aeroplanes from their bases? In any case there is an obvious retort. In .1890. the Mother Country failed to realise- the strategic value of Heligoland.- Is- tfc«re anybody left to-day who still approves of the cession of Heligoland to Ge"many? To .propound'- that ; question i ? to answer it, and at the same time to justify pa«t of our case regarding the I former ■Germsin possessjons m the Paei. fie. Germany would never have been m the Pacific but for what a wellknown writer has described as "the masterly -negligence : <tf :. British statesmen. . ■ • . .- .- . , ,