The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News,Morning News and The Echo. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1926. GERMANY'S COLONIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 16, 20 January 1926, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1926. GERMANY'S COLONIES.

j For the caus\i that lacks assistant*, j Far the wrong that needs resistance, I Far the future in the i And the good that wz can do.

The demand for the restoration of German colonies as a condition of Germany's entering into the League of Nations is not to be taken as an official or authoritative expression of opinion on this question. To do the leading German statesmen of the day justice, they all apparently recognise that the time lias certainly- not yet ' come for Germany to adopt this impracticable and dictatorial tone. But no doubt there is a strong body of public opinion in Germany which supports the proposal that the Association of Colonial Societies has just submitted to the Government at Berlin, and we can hardly be surprised that this is so. For the Germans are a vigorous and enterprising people who, within two or three decades, saw their foreign trade and their industries develop on a scale of unprecedented magnitude and with unparalleled rapidity—and they felt very keenly the disastrous collapse of their oversea commerce. More especially many of their great industries, dependent, like those of Britain, upon external sources of raw material, have been most injuriously affected by the loss of Germany's tropical and sub-tropical possessions; and it is therefore only to be expected that protests of this sort should be raised from time to time. But what amount of importance is to be attached to the claim of the German Colonial Societies, that New Guinea and the Cameroons, Togoland and East Africa and South-West Africa, are simply "property stolen from Germany in defiance of right"? To answer this question we must recall briefly the reasons advanced by the spokesmen of the Allies at the Peace Conference when Germany was deprived of her colonial empire after the war. Quite apart from the advisability of inflicting some adequate punishment upon the Power which had planned and precipitated tnis disastrous conflict, it was pointed out that. on several distinct grounds, the Allies were practically compelled to reject Germany's claim to retain her colonial possessions, in the first place, experience had aliswn that Germany had systematically utilised her colonies as centres from which to direct that "peaceful penetration" in which she excelled . against her neighbours' commerce and industry, and had at the same time equipped them as bases for military and naval aggression as well. Secondly, Germany's record as a colonial Power lin regard to her treatment of subject races was such that in the interests of humanity and civilisation the Allies were not justified in handing back savage or semi-civilised peoples to her tender mercies. Finally, this second argument was strengthened by the knowledge that in practically all the German colonies where fighting had taken place durin<_ the war the native populations, for the best of reasons, had taken sides with the invading Allies; and to restore German authority in these regions would have meant giving the Germans a free hand to wreak exemplary vengeance upon these helpless peoples who had been encouraged to aid the Allies by the hope of freedom or safe v. To those who hold that-these arguments are sound and convincing, German outcries about "stolen property' and "defiance of rights" will make little appeal. It is quite probable that the German Colonial Societies sincerely believe in the truth and justice of their claims, but that need make no difference to those who think that the- Great War was directly due to the deliberate intrigues and machinations and the fixed intention of Germany. Unfortunately the public memory, even in regard to events of such vast international importance, is short and inaccurate, and in spite of the overwhelming amount of evidence which, as admitted by some leading German historians and statesmen and publicists of the day. fixed the guilt upon her. there are many who now incline to the view that the responsibility for the war ought to be divided between the civilised nations and distributed practically over the whole visible universe. Ignorance, credulity, inability'to weigh historical evidence, and reluctance to draw the line clearly between right and wrong are unfortunately. common characteristics: but there is no reason why these weaknesses and their consequences should make any difference to the determination of the Allies to enforce justice against Germany on the lines laid down at the Peace Conference. In the indefinite future, ho doubt, the time will come -when these condition's will be modified. Meanwhile, it would be most disastrous folly on the part of the Allies to bribe Germany into entering the League of Nations by granting such concessions as her Colonial Societies demand-