CONTROL OF THE PACIFIC.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 14398, 4 January 1911, Page 3

CONTROL OF THE PACIFIC.

AUSTRALIAN AMBITIONS. TO TAKE COMPLETE CHARGE. By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. (Received Jan. 4, 9 a.m.) SYDNEY, Jan. 4. Tho Herald states that an important movement is on foot with a view to having tho office of High Commissioner of the Western Pacific removed from Fiji to Sydney, the proposal being that tho position shall eventually become a Commonwealth instead of an Imperial one. It adds that the question, it is understood, has already received the attention of the Federal Government, but it is realised to bo a somewhat difficult task to induce tho British authorities to recognise that Australian interests in tho Pacific have absorbed and outgrown the Imperial interests . Tho Herald further says; “Wo can only regard tho Pacific as tho natural harrier between ourselves and the Asiatic East. Wo have ail along argued what is now an admitted fact, that questions of geography make Fiji a most undesirable place of residence for tho High Commissioner, and now that the islands are being recognised as promising fields for the planter, there is all the more need that a definite policy should bo pursued right through the Pacific, and that tho Commissioner bo so placed that he can control such policy at any point of its application. Sydney is such a natural centre, and with the improvement of communication its claims will he more obvious."