German Colonization in the Pacific: the Outbreak of War
Mackenzie, S.S. (1941). "German Colonization in the Pacific: the Outbreak of War". The Australians at Rabaul: the Capture and Administration of the German Possessions in the Southern Pacific (PDF). 10. Angus and Robertson LTD. pp. 1–6.
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Abstract: IN THE PACIFIC-THE OUTBREAK OF WAR GERMANY became a colonial power in the Pacific in 1884. While her diplomats in Berlin and London were still protesting to the British Foreign Office that she had no intention of annexing territory or exercising sovereign rights in New Guinea, her cruisers were hoisting the flag there and in the New Britain Archipelago. Bismarck was thus able to forestall any action which Great Britain might sooner or later have taken at the instance of the Australian colonies and New Zealand. Again and again these colonies urged on the Foreign Office the annexation of New Guinea, in order to prevent any other European power from establishing there a base of possibly hostile action. Again and again they had been met with the assurance that no European power contemplated such design, and that a declaration of suzerainty by Great Britain over New Guinea would be an unfriendly act to " a great friendly nation." In its solicitude for Germany's suscepti-bilities the Imperial Government had disavowed the prescient annexation by Queensland in 1883 of all the non-Dutch part of New Guinea and the adjacent islands. Eritish statesmen, we know now, had their hands full of trouble in Egypt, and relations with France on the one hand and with Germany on the other were in a delicate condition. New Guinea lay far beyond the European horizon ; international interest in colonial development was concentrated mainly upon the partition of Africa. Australian aspirations were, therefore, subordinated to the needs of the Empire in another sphere. There were two sides to the question ;l but to Australians, with their clear realisation of dangers knocking at their door, the lack or" interest and the apparent supineness of the Foreign Office with regard to New Guinea appeared as a great betrayal. When, after the annexation by Queensland had been repudiated, Germany promptly took advantage of the blunder and hoisted her flag on the north coast of New Guinea and in the ___-1 See The Problem of the Commonwealth. by Lionel Curtis. pp. 75-8 a
