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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 76

[From the "New York Times," December 24, 1899.]

[From the "New York Times," December 24, 1899.]

"No more unwelcome tidings could have been wafted to Australasia than that Great Britain had come to an arrangement with Germany to hand over to that power the control and management of the lion's share of Samoa. The transfer has occurred at a time when there is little disposition to call into question the wisdom of Great Britain in surrendering Samoa without previously taking the Colonies into her confidence on the question. The outbreak of the Transvaal war has brought with it a tidal wave of Imperialism all over the Colonies of Australasia, and the feeling is so intense that for the moment the Colonists generally are blind to the danger of having a great European power like Germany brought into such close proximity to their shores. Had the proposal been put before them in a time of peace, there would have been a howl of indignation from all the British dependencies in these seas, and a stubborn diplomatic effort to prevent Germany from obtaining the foothold she has gained in Samoa.

"Powerless as the Colonies now are, without any hope of getting the thing undone, a strong undercurrent of feeling prevails that Great Britain has not treated the Australasian Colonies as she ought to have done, and this sense of injustice will become intensified with the restoration of peace and a more thorough realisation of the danger to which Germany's presence as a close and powerful neighbor exposes us. It is well known that Germany's interference in Samoan affairs has always been repugnant to the wishes of the majority of the inhabitants of that country, and no less to Australasians, whose chief desire has ever been to keep foreign European page 21 control out of the Southern Pacific as much as possible. To this end, resistance has always been offered against the acquisition of the New Hebrides by France, and, in spite of this, Samoa has been quietly surrendered to Germany, as an expedient of British policy to cultivate the friendship of that nation in a fleeting emergency.

"The only atom of consolation we can discover in the arrangement is that Tutuila is to be American, and that an alliance between the two great English-speaking nations of the world can at any time minimize the dangers arising from such an undesirable Germanic proximity to our coasts. One immediate effect of the banding over of Samoa to Germany will be this:—It will impress the Colonies with the necessity of inaugurating and gradually perfecting a combined system of defence on land and sea, as well for internal safety as for the protection of their commerce with the outside world, and the insuring of a greater influence in the councils of the mother land."

Note.—Nearly three years ago, in the columns of the Melbourne "Age" I warned the Governments of Australasia of the designs of Germany upon Samoa. The substance of that warning was immediately cabled back to New Zealand; and the Premier, on being interviewed by a local press representative pooh poohed the idea, and declared that "there was nothing in it." I pointed out in the "Age" that there could not be the slightest doubt, from information in my possession, that Germany meant to acquire Samoa. That intention was only postponed through the outbreak of the Spanish-American war. So far from there being nothing in the warning, there was unfortunately too much in it, and the surrender of Samoa and its partition between Germany and America have come about exactly as I described in the "Age" nearly three years ago. But for the laissez-faire attitude of Mr. Seddon and similar inactivity on the part of the Governments of Australia, this regrettable consummation would not have happened. A combined and vigorous protest on the part of the Governments of Australasia at that time would have upset the intentions of Germany, because England would never have dared to disregard the wishes of combined Australasia upon a question of such vital importance to these Colonies. As it is, we have now an undesirable neighbour like Germany at our very doors, and to the apathy and want of foresight of those in authority must be attributed this lamentable issue of events.

J. Grattan Grey.

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City Printing Coy. (Wright & Grenside), FitzGerald's Avenue, Willis Street, Wellington.—April 2, 1900.