GERMANY AND COLONIES

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 26, 25 October 1938, Page 11

GERMANY AND COLONIES

Scrutiny Of Her Claims

AUSTRALIA’S MANDATE

When Herr Hitler wrote “Jlein Kampf” he described Germany’s prewar colonial policy as absurd, and declared that the Reich should “renounce colonies and sea power.” As late as August, 1934, he told Jlr. Ward Price: “Germany does not want colonies.”

Either the Fuhrer has changed his opinion, or he has yielded to the clarion of his colonial-minded lieutenants, for in February, 1937, he informed the Reichstag that “the demand for colonies for our denselypopulated country will again and again be raised as a matter of course,” says a correspondent in the “Sydney Morning Herald.” In “Germany’s Claim to Colonies,” recently issued by the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House; Londort, German colonial policy before and since the war, and the reactions to it in other countries, are impartially scrutinised. The pamphlet is a useful supplement to the institute’s encyclopaedic, “Colonial Problem,” published last year. Bismarck’s Germany entered upon colonising activity late. It was not until 1884 that she acquired her first African trading post, but, within a few years, she had gained control of considerable African territories and of a section of New Guinea. By 1914 her colonies had a white population of about 20,000, were absorbing one in 20,000 of the annual increase' in the German population, and were supplying her with one-half per cent, of her Imports.

What Does Germany Want?

The authors of the Chatham House pamphlet point out that, though speeches innumerable have been made by German leaders asserting the claim for colonies, her demands have not been precisely defined. However, the utterances of responsible spokesmen suggest that the claim is limited to the former German colonies, and particularly the African colonies; and that Germany will not be satisfied to be a mandatory Power but must have full possession. Her claim is based on her fitness to exploit colonies and administer backward races, her need of raw materials, and of room for her surplus people; not (Herr Hitler has said it) on a desire for strategically valuable outposts. The speeches of Herr Hitler and Herr von Ribbentrop imply that Germany will rely on negotiation to obtain colonies. FieldMarshal Goering, however, has announced that Germany- will gain them “through her own strength.” If Germany were to repossess all her former colonies they would be able to supply her with only a small proportion of the raw materials she needs, even taking tropical products alone into consideration.. In 1934 the former German colonies produced only orfeseventh of the German requirements of vegetable oils, one-tenth of the coffee she consumes, about 2 per cent, of the cotton she needs. They could contribute little or nothing towards meeting her d&ficiency in iron, rubber, petroleum and copper.

Negligible Outlet.

Unless Germany haa more 'skill than the mandatory Powers in settling her people in the tropics, her former colonies would provide room for only a negligible proportion of the “overcrowded” German people. Since 1914 the European population of the lost colonies has increased, by about 27,000, despite the fact that two of them, South-west Africa and New Guinea, are close to big centres of white population. The population has in the former case been doubled, and in the latter more than trebled since 1920

The pamphlet records that all of the colonial Powers affected, also Holland and Portugal, have declared emphatically that .they will hold their colonies. Japan, Australia, and South Africa have announced that they will not surrender their mandates, but French and British leaders have made statements that suggest that they do not wish to close the door to the possibility either of a return of colonies or to some economic concessions.

For the Australian policy the pamphlet quotes the statement in 1936 by Sir George Pearce, then Minister for External Affairs, that the return of the territories held by Australia under mandate was “unthinkable.” Even in 1935 Lord Baldwin, then Prime Minister, had carefully avoided giving an assurance that Great Britain would not transfer her mandates, and the same reserve has been observed by Mr. Eden and Mr. Chamberlain. This may, perhaps, give significance to the denial by Mr. Lyons that the Minister of External Affairs, Mr. Hughes, when in New Guinea recently, had repeated, in his emphatic style, substantially, what Sir George Pearce had said two years before.

Little is said specifically of New Guinea in “Germany’s claim to colonies,” but, read from an Australian viewpoint, the essay offers reminders that legally, politically, and economically, the Pacific Islands, New Guinea, and South-west Africa fall into a different category from the other mandated territories. They are C class mandates—that is to say, it was considered in 1919 that they could best be administered “under the laws of the mandatory as integral portions of its territory.” Each C class mandate lies next door to a selfgoverning nation remote from Europe, and thus there are special reasons, political and military, why the mandatory Power should in these instances wish to avoid the dangers or possible complications that close proximity to the territory of a great European Power might bring.