DEAL WITH BRITAIN

Evening Post, Issue 12, 14 July 1936, Page 9

DEAL WITH BRITAIN

SOUTH AFRICAN TERMS

COLONIES IN RETURN

The conversations with Oswald Pirow, Defence Minister of South Africa, in progress at the Dominions Office regarding the future lines of the Imperial defence policy, are not unexpectedly taking a turn that is certain to produce ' important developments, wrote Frederick Birchal from London to the "New York Times" on June 14.

The crucial point in the future policy of Imperial defence has- become the Mediterranean, and the British communications that pass through that sea. It has become realised since -Italy's invasion of Ethiopia brought Anglo-Italian relations close to the breaking point that the Mediterranean, while an-excellent short highway to and from the Orient in peace time, can easily become a highway of peril under war conditions and no place for the more costly and more powerful units of the British Fleet.

In such ,a.case these must seek immediately the freer spaces of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

In other words, it is being realised that British naval strategy must be based on the principle that Britain is an oceanic Power and in wartime her main line of communications with her far-flung commonwealths and colonies to the east must lie southward of the Cape of Good Hope. This entails the necessity of revising the old South African naval base, which is at Simon's Town, in Table Bay, some twenty mile* out from Cape Town.

When the South . African Union attained Dominion status British rights in Simon's Town were vaguely reserved—too vaguely perhaps, because it is now discovered they are insufficient to permit the British Admiralty to do there all it thinks'necessary to provide itself with a first-class naval base. Hence Mr. Pirow's visit. CONDITIONS LAID DOWN. The Government of the Union is prepared to grant the necessary privileges, but with conditions and at a price. Mr. Pirow is understood to be driving a hard bargain. . His Government demands, first; that the so-called native protectorates, reserved when the Union was created, shall now be surrendered to it by the British Government; second, that Britain shall recognise the Union's right to share in the rich Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angora, if these fall into the market through collapse of Portugal; third, that Britain shall undertake to spend large sums in building a new naval base; fourth,- that notwithstanding this the territory concerned shall remain Union territory, and that the Union shall not automatically be bound to take part in any war in which Britain may find herself engaged.

The last point is the most important. It will need much elucidation, and. from the British viewpoint, it calls for distinct modification.

It is notorious that the South African politicians now in control at the Cape have no overwhelming love for Great Britain and frequently are out of harmony with British policies. Mr. Pirow himself, before coming to England, is said to have, made a speech in which he said anybody who believed South Africa must enter any war waged by Great Britain should return to the nursery and grow up.

It is evident, therefore, that in this conference the doctrine of South 'African independence will need clarification and more precise definition as far as it affects a future naval base at Simon's Town. There will also inevitably arise the question of the British attitude towards the expected German demand for re- ! turn of her former African colonies. That South Africa would permit a return to the Reich of its former German territory in South-west Africa is more than doubtful. How the Union would regard a return of Tanganyika to Germany is more questionable, but about the attitude of the thriving British Crown colonies of Rhodesia and Kenya there is no question whatever. They would violently oppose it., RECURRENT SUBJECT. The question of the future partition of Portuguese colonies in Africa is continually coming up and is becoming a source of international difficulty. It has never been publicly raised because it is evident that Portugal has not the least intention at present of parting1 with any of her colonies, and in her economic condition she has no need to dp so. .

Nevertheless, whispers have long been current and they are well known to the Portuguese Government, and there is reason to believe they have already been the subject of strong Portuguese representations to London.

A powerful section of South African opinion is understood to envisage a partition that would leave Mozambique northward of the Zambesi River to Germany and the southern part to the South African Union However, any such deal would cut off the British crown colony of Rhodesia from all connection with the sea, forcing it inevitably into the South African Union.

Whether Rhodesia would favour such a situation is doubtful. But, most of all, Portugal is still in possession and is likely to react violently to any such rapacious project.

Nevertheless, there have been indications recently that German agents in the guise of Communist agitators are busy across the Spanish frontier stirring up trouble for the Salazar regime in Portugal, which for seven years has kept the country in the straight path of economic revival.

Premier Salazar himself is known to be uneasy about this, divining that the object is to disrupt Portugal and cause her colonies to fall into the market. Undoubtedly this will be brought to Mr. Pirow's attention.

All in all, this is an extremely important conference and likejy by far to overlap the limits of the discussion over the establishment of a British' naval base near Cape Town.