[Page 52]
TERMS OF CAPITULATION:
Made this Seventeenth day of September, 1914, between Colonel William Holmes, D.S.O., V.D. Brigadier Commanding the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force, on behalf of His Most Gracious Majesty King George the Fifth of the first part, and Herr E. Haber, Acting Governor of the German Possessions known as Deutsch Neu Guinea, on behalf of the German Imperial Government of the second part.
WHEREAS the principal centres of Deutsch Neu Guinea have been occupied by an overwhelming force under the command of the said Colonel Holmes.
And whereas the said Acting Governor has no authority to surrender any portion of the German Possessions under his Administration, but in view of the said occupation by this said overwhelming force, the said Acting Governor is prepared to give an assurance that all Military resistance to such occupation in Deutsch Neu Guinea shall cease forthwith.
Now, the following terms and conditions are solemnly agreed upon between the said contracting parties:-
(1) The name Deutsch Neu Guinea (German Neu Guinea) includes the whole of the German Possessions in the Pacific Ocean lately administered from Rabaul by the said Acting Governor on behalf of the Imperial German Government, and the said Possessions are hereafter referred to as "The Colony".
(2) All Military resistance to the said Military Occupation of the Colony shall cease forthwith.
(3) The armed German and Native Forces now in the field are to be surrendered at Herbertshohe on the 21st day of September 1914 at Ten o'clock in the forenoon. Military honors will be granted.
(4) Upon the said Acting Governor giving his parole to take no further part directly or indirectly in the present War, no obstacle will be placed in the way of his returning to Germany. Such parole shall not prevent the said Acting Governor from tendering to the Imperial Government at Berlin such advice as he may deem proper with regard to terms of peace.
(5) Such of the Officers of the said forces in the field as are Officers of the German regular forces, will be treated as prisoners of war in the usual manner. Such of the Officers of the said forces as are not Officers of the German regular forces, but whose usual occupation is Civil, on taking an oath of neutrality for the duration of the present War, will be released and permitted to return to their homes and ordinary avocations, except where such avocations are official, in which case the provisions of Paras. 10 and 11 hereof will apply.
(6) As the said Acting Governor gives his assurance that none of the white Non-commissioned Officers and Men now in the field belong to the Regular Forces of the German Empire, such white Non-commissioned Officers and Men, upon taking the oath of neutrality, will be released and permitted to resume their ordinary avocations, except where such avocations are Official, in which case the provisions of Paras. 10 and 11 hereof will apply.
(over)