Even Germany can hardly ascribe to land hunger the declaration
of Mr. W. M. Hughes, made to the Executive Committee of the Pilgrims on Friday week, that Australia "could not, dared not, assent to the islands formerly owned by Germany in the Pacific being handed back after the war " ; for the Commonwealth has already scope for twenty times her present population. Australia's motive is self-preservation. Before the war Germany had sown the seeds of a great Empire in the Pacific, by means of naval bases, wireless stations, and " peaceful penetration." Her re-establish- ment in her Pacific possessions would be a constant menace to Australia, who, in Mr. Hughes's words, now "stood committed to an Australian Monroe Doctrine in the Southern Pacific." Sir Joseph Ward, addressing the members of the British Empire League on Monday, made an equally emphatic declaration of New Zealand's determination to have no Germans in the Pacific. This was New Zealand's long-considered and irrevocable decision. Germany in the Pacific would " ever stand a menace to our security and our peaceful development."
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