ENEMY COLONIES

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 96, 23 April 1917, Page 2

ENEMY COLONIES

NOT TO BE GIVEN BAOKi

LONDON, 13th Feßruary.

Shortly after the publication of ,jshe> Allies' Note to the United States stating in general terms' what" the Allies were fighting for, both - Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward expressed their regret that no mention was made about the colonien which oversea soldiers had captured from Germany. They referred especially to Samoa and German New Guinea, and said that as far as Samoa was concerned .'ijTew Zealand intended to keep.that island.'

A few days later, Mr. Walter Long, Secretary of State for the Colonies, made an important pronouncement at a Westminster War Loan meeting. He said: —

"Speaking as the representative of the vast Overseas Dominions, I say let no man think that these struggles have been in vain. Let no man think that those territories shall ever return to German rule. It is impossible! And I know that our Overseas Empire would not tolerate any suggestion of that kind." . The fate of Germany's polonies is accepted as a foregone conclusion in this country with tho solitary exception of the Daily News,which paper comments: — "The cause of the. Allies stands well in America to-day, and' the prospect of Germany's peace terms being., produced (if she is asked for them) need cause us no disquiet. But nothing could do that-c»use worse- service than that the Colonial Secretary or any other Minister should take advantage of a casual War Loan meeting to add a most important postscript to the joint Note of the Allies to President Wilson. That' Note contained no .referenco to the fate of the German colonies and the omission was made the text in America for some generous tributes to the disinterestedness of ' Great Britain. Whatever is the proper destiny of those colonies, and they do not all fall in the same category; the Allies' decision ought either to have beck stated in the Note to Amorica or else deferred till the peace settlement as a whole is under serious consideration." .■■■'.;.