The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-01-24 00:00:00

GERMAN CLAIMS ON THE FIJI
ISLANDS

A new White Book, which bears the title "German
Claims to Land in Fiji," was published in Berlin on
Tuesday. It comprises thirty-three documents, dating
from the 31st of October, 1874, to the 16th of Sep-
tember, 1884, and furnishes a record of the endeavours
made by German diplomacy during the ten years
covered by the correspondence to obtain a settlement
of the claims of German subkcts to land in the Fiji
Islands. It is pointed out that the papers possess a
special interest, because the resistance offered by Eng-
land to the German claims dealt with in the White
Book first induced the Imperial Government to adopt
its present active colonial policy. The starting point
of the correspondence is the annexation of the Fiji
Islands by England in October, 1874, whereby debts
contracted before 1871 were declared not recoverable.
The date was subsequently altered to the IQth of
October, 1874, and the title-deeds of lands acc iired
in the islands were furthermore referred to a special
Commission. The Commission, however, proceeded
very slowly with the examination of the documents,
and completely contested several of the proofs of
ownership laid before it. The complaints and peti-
tions ..to the Imperial Government of the German
claimants whose pretensions were thus disallowed are
printed in the White Book, and form the subject of
continued remonstrance on the part of the German
Government in London. On the 16th of April, 1883,
the German Government proposed the appointment
of a mixed Commission to investigate the disputed
claims. Lord Granville replied on the 23rd of July,
1883, by communicating the opinion of the Colonial
Office that the proposal could not be accepted. The
German Government answered this despatch on the
18th of October by a request to be informed of the
views of the English Cabinet, and not those of the
Colonial Office; and in a note dated the 31st of
December the appointment of a Commission to settle
the questions pending was again urg d. On the lit
of January, 1884, Lord Granville wrote again that
taking into consideration the recorded opinion of the
Colonial Office, her Majesty's Government was not dis-
posed to assent to the prop-sal of the German Govern-
ment. Further communications from Lord Granville
show that the Colonial Office continued to maintain its
objections to the German proposition. Finally, on
the 19th of June of the same year (1884), Count
Munster' the German Ambassador in London, in-
formed his Government that Lord Granville had
agreed to the appointment of a mixed Commission
composed of English and German colonial officials.
The German Government' then announced on the
4th of August that Herr Kranel, the Consul-General
had been appointed to sit on the Commission on be-
half of Germany; and it further stated its views as to
the place of meeting and the labours of the Com-
mission. The correspondence closes with a despatch
of Lord Granville dated the 16th of September, in
which he notifies his general concurrence in those
views.

THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTEBURY ON
CHURCH HISTORY.
The Archbishop of Canterbury presided at a con-
ference of Church workers held in the Croydon
Public Hall. He said that not one in ten members•
uf the English Church could defend the principle of
his Church or knew as much about its history as
almost every Dissenter or Roman Catholic could urge
in defence of their Churches. He attributed this to
nealect in reading the history of the Church since the
Reformation.