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and the German companies will not be liquidated. The ultimate fate of New Guinea will be sealed at a later peace conference. This treaty is infinitely more favourable than the agreements struck in our other colonies in the Pacific, which were all surrendered unconditionally and where all German companies have been liquidated. The Australians surely agreed to the New Guinea treaty only because they assumed a much larger German military presence inland and feared heavy and prolonged fighting. They were greatly surprised when they discovered that the whole German might, Germans and natives combined, amounted to just 400 men.
According to the accounts of many [witnesses], the Australians have wreaked havoc everywhere. From the Commander and first governor, Holms, down to the last private, they all enriched themselves. When Haber, on his journey to Europe in December, had dinner at the home of Holms’ son-in-law, he had the great pleasure to eat from the silverware that belonged to his house in Rabaul. Among the worst excesses