MANIFEST DESTINY AT THE ANTIPODES.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 399, 22 September 1875, Page 3

MANIFEST DESTINY AT THE ANTIPODES.

[Pall Mall Gazette] Every mail that now arrives from Australia brings news of the increasing determination of the Australian colonies to press the annexation of New Guinea upon the Imperial Government. Lord Carnarvon's reply to the deputation which waited upon him on this subject has been taken up as a challenge, and the public meeting in favor of the annexation which was held at Sydney on the 11th of May has been supported by the public and (lie press, not only in New South Wales but in Victoria aad Queensland. It is

! amusing, nevertheless, to note that, in accordance with Ihe prediction we ventured to make at the time, the Australians rliscor -red that this is chiefly a matter of Im ial interest as soon hs it seemed likely thai ■ ■ . • y would be called upon to pay some poll om of the cost of taking possession. The Victuii;m. Sir J. O'Shanassy, in a rather ,; high falutin,' speech, scoffed at snch petty little questions being raised where there was a revenue of £75,0()0,U00 a year. Ah if the whole or luis vast sum were not already disposed of, and to a certain extent for the benefit ot the colonists themselves, seeing that the Imperial navy protects their trade and countiy. No doubt general points of Imperial policy ought not to be settled on mere pouuus, shillings, and pence principles, but a direct appeal to the pocket is often a very fair test of earnestness in political matters as in those of everyday life. However, the whole subject promises to grow to the magnitude of an Australian question, and it may be well therefore to look a little closely into the arguments put forward iu favor of immediate annexation. And first we must protest against the assumption that, the Fiji Islands having been annexed, the same reasons which induced Great Britain to take possession of that group must necessarily weigh with the Government in respect to Papua. The circumstances are, in truth, entirely different. Fiji was, at any rate, tolerably well known; a considerable number of British subjects, without any consultation with the authorities either at home or in Australia, had already settled in the islands ; English men-of-war had constantly interfered to such an extent that we had become in no small degree responsible for the misgovernment that prevailed ; while an influential body of people at home believed that nothing short of the possession of Fiji would enable us to control the labor traffic, the evils of which were then brought prominently forward. Moreover, the unequalled position of the group, whether for a naval station or for a coaling port for steamers between Sydney and San Francisco, gave it a marked importance from a strategical point of view. Further, the islands were comparatively small, the population, even before this awful epidemic, could be reckoned by tens of thousands, and the climate was fairly healthy. New Guinea, on the other hand, is almost unexplored; it is the second largest island on the globe; it is estimated to contain 5,000,000 natives, |rnost of whom, notwithstanding the favorable experiences of Captain Moresby and of the Ballurat miner quoted by the Melbourne Argus, are in the main ferocious cannibals ; it is entirely unsettled by British subjects ; the wealth of the island could only be adequately developed by slavery in a more or less mitigated form, and by all accounts the climate is to the full as trying to Europeans as that of the other great islands of the Malay Archipelago. Unless, therefore, some quite exceptional reasons can be given, anything in the shape of annexation would be wholly premature. It is urged, no doubt with some force, that lying as Papua does only eighty miles from the northern coast of Australia, and thrust in on the Torres Straits route to India and China, a foreign and hostile Power which controlled its harbours might inconvenience our trade materially. And the foreign and possibly hostile Power is not far to seek, according to Australian forecasts. If we do not at once seize upon New Guinea, Russia undoubtedly will—which suggests the question, Why should she not already have taken possession of Borneo, a still larger and much better known island, quite as rich and equally well situated, and which we more than once have deliberately refused to have anything to do with? Russia has probably enough to do in the future without weakening her available naval force, and inviting defeat by taking possession of an island thousands of miles from any Russian station. And this remark applies, though for different reasons, to Germany, France, and the United States. Tropical dependencies are not such a boon in these days that the great Powers need be constantly on the look out to aggrandise themselves in this direction, and the recent experience of the Dutch would scarcely tend to make them more eager. Should England deem it advisable, on account of deference to Australian prejudices or for more solid reasons, to annex New Guinea, there is little likelihood that for many years to come she will be interfered with by the prior claim of any other country, save perhaps Holland. If, however, the Imperial Government allows itself to be influenced by the clamour which is now raised, every island in the Pacific or in the Malay Archipelago will soon become of extraordinary importance in the eyes of the same people who now urge the annexation of Papua. Appetite grows by what it feeds on ; and England will soon find herself in possession of a number of savage tropical islands only to be governed in despotic fashion and at very heavy cost.