FACING A TEST

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 112, 7 November 1935, Page 9

FACING A TEST

COLONIAL EMPIRES

ISSUE RAISED BY ITALY

HARD TO SETTLE

The Ethiopian crisis suggests that the world is faced by a much larger problem. What is at stake may not be Ethiopia alone but -the colonial question as a whole. Germany, as well as Italy, is demanding colonies. Japan also aims at expansion, writes P. • \V. Wilson in the "New York "Times." On this world-wide issue, there have been important pronouncements. Sir Samuel Hbare, In his speech before the League Assembly, held out hope of a new arrangement throwing colonial possessions open to all European countries for trade on equal terms. Musso- j lini stated to a correspondent that his! efforts to discuss colonial adjustment with the London Foreign Office some months back had been rebuffed. It is clear from these statements that there is an unsatisfied demand for colonies. The facts to be faced are simple. The land area of the world covers about 55,000,000 square miles. About a third of this total territory and a third of the world's population are under control of'some kind, exercised by a paramount and external power. This composite empire consists of more than a hundred different territories, many of them -strategically situated. It includes colonies, mandates, protectorates, and spheres of influence. It is rich in natural resource's of every kind; broadly speaking, it provides food and raw materials for consumption and manufacture by the more industrially advanced nations. VARIATIONS IN VALUE. Some possessions represent areas of continental extent, like India; others, a mere point on the map, like Nauru, an island containing eight ; square miles. The extent of a territory is not necessarily a criterion of its' value. For instance, Greenland and' Alaska, owned, Respectively by Denmark and the' United States, stretch into the Arctic regions, and Libya,: owned by Italy, .includes a good deal of desert. British Somaliland is actually- bigger than England; but it supports . only 344,700 people. A mere glance at the distribution of colonial possessions is enough to show that the system of sovereignty was not arranged according to any preconceived or logical plan. First, we have the composite empire divided among continents thus:— Square Ponula- .- ' .. ■ Miles. tion. Europe 371,771 95G.304 Africa 10,098,575 121,480,219 Asja 5,180,072 535,432,365 America 313,631 5,152,000 Australasia .. . 212,063 ,1,190,220 17,576,112 G64,220,117 Second, we have a distribution of the composite empire among the possessing or paramount powers thus: — EUHOPEAX POWERS. Square . Popula--1 ' ' ■ Miles. tlcm. Britain 7,287,937 4J6.191.03i France 1,606,635 63,815,078 Anglo-French : 5,700 51,000 Portugal 807,067 8,307,073 Netherlands 787,072 60,856,!)12 Italy ,876,416 2.451.10!) Spain 130,155 874,368 Denmark 367,009 125.433 Belgium ........... 920,600 9.554.936 KO'X-EUROPEAX POWERS. • United' States V. 711,609 14,665,670 Union of South Africa 322,393 -204,520 Australia ~.. ...it- .181,540 : . ,G73,OSG New Zealand; .....; ■- 1,268 - ■•■ 45.831 Japan '. .360,811 .56,310,437 - 17,570,112 664,220,117 The far-reaching significance of the issue stated by Sir Samuel Hoare is thus evident. .On the one hand, the composite empire is, in the main, a control of territory in Asia and Africa by nations of European origin. On ' the other hand, that empire is unevenly distributed among those nations. A small country like the' Netherlands owns possessions that support 63,000,000 persons. But the possessions of Italy, a much larger country, support, only about 2,500,000; and Germany has no possessions at all. ITALY'S GRIEVANCE. Since the World War, Italy has laboured under a sense of grievance which Premier Mussolini emphasises. At Paris she received European territory—for instance, the Trentino and Fiume—but was excluded from a share in the former German possessions. Nor was she able \o establish a sphere of influence within the former Ottoman empire. She acquired certain Aegean Islands, including Rhodes, but. failed to make good a foothold in Asia Minor. Italy is seeking for compensation in Ethiopia. The case of Germany is also held too be urgent. Before the war her colonial possessions were as follows:— Square FqnulaMlles. tlon. Africa— Togoland 33,659 1,000,000 South-west Africa ... 322,348 120,000 East Africa 384,079 7,6-15,000 Pacific— New Guinea 90,000 463,300 Solomon, Caroline, and Marshall Islands .. 5,160 122,000 Samoa 1,650 37,650 Asia— Kiao Chau 2,730 84,000 839.046 9.471.950 . The whole 'of this colonial empire has been distributed under mandate of the League among Britain, the Union of South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, and Japan. Germany resents the implication that she has forfeited, in perpetuity, the right to own colonies, and she asks for her colonies to be returned. The demand for colonies is supported by a paradox. Germany and Italy are or have been strong military and naval powers. The armies and. navies of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Portugal are secondary, nor are any of these countries able to defend their possessions by force. They hold their colonies by consent of civilisation as a whole. Hitherto that consent has been expressed latently in British seapower which has intervened between Europe and the colonial possessions of the smaller European countries. Today that seapower is an active element in the situation. THEORY UPSET. It is frequently suggested that colonies are an outlet for surplus population. There arises the question whether this belief is now justified by facts. It is not easy to discover any territory, describable as colonial, where Europeans in any large numbers would care to live. Some British have settled in Kenya. Italians have crowded into French Tunis. But there are doubts whether Ethiopia, if conquered, would provide a homeland for many Italians, and the experience of the Far East is here instructive. Japanese have not migrated into Siberia. It i 3 the Chinese who mainly occupy Manchuria and, despite Japanese control, there is actually an immigration of Koreans into overcrowded Japan. From time to time, territory of importance, regarded as colonial, has been peacefully transferred by one Power to another. The United States thus received Alaska from Russia, Louisiana from France, Florida from Spain, and the Virgin Islands from Denmark. Britain ceded Heligoland to .Germany and has been making tentative offers to Italy of territory near Ethiopia.

Similar adjustments elsewhere are

suggested—but not very hopefully. Would France be willing to cede a slice of Tunis to Italy? Would Portugal be ready to sell her African colonies of Angola and Mozambique? To what extent would Britain be ready to dispose of her farflung Empire? i Such adjustments would affect not only the power that made the territorial sacrifice. As an illustration, take the Guianas in South America which are British, French, and Dutch. Suppose—for the sake of argument— that the possessing Powers were willing to hand over these possessions to Germany and Italy. Would the LatinAmerican republics agree to the exchange? And would the United States agree? So with the proposal to purchase and distribute the African colonies held by Portugal. Would the Union of South Africa agree to the division of these large areas between Germany and Italy? Certainly there would be serious discussion. NATIONS WATCH. Ethiopia also provides a test case. The quasi-autonomous sovereignties in the Middle East—lrak, Iran, Afghanis- ! tan, the Arabian kingdoms, and Egypt —are asking whether they also are to Ibe rearranged as satisfaction for colonial aspirations in Europe. A change of territory from the surveillance of one paramount Power to another paramount Power may involve much more than a change of sovereignty. It may be a change in method and extent of control —for instance from civil to military administration. The introduction of European militarism into Africa or of Japanese militarism into Melanesian j Asia would affect the continents as a I whole. I It may be doubted whether commercial advantages, however profitable to individual enterprises, have been of as much benefit to colonial nations as a whole as it is sometimes assumed. After the war Britain added a million miles to her sphere of influence. But her shipping has suffered severely, her cotton trade is greatly reduced, and for many years she had to support more than 2,000,000 unemployed.

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