GERMAN CLAIMS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 50, 1 March 1937, Page 10

GERMAN CLAIMS

RETURN OF COLONIES

REPORT BY THE EMPIRE ECONOMIC UNION

UcJted Press Association—By Electric Telegraph— Copyright. (Received March 1, 11.20 a.m.) LONDON, February 23. The Empire Economic Union:has issued a report on "the British Colonial Empire and the German claim," stressing that foreign nations cannot complain that the fiscal treatment by Britain does not draw tributes from i her' mandated territpries arid protectorates. On the contrary, Britain helps them j when they are in financial difficulties' and administers them on the basis of the welfare of the inhabitants. They have been an expense rather than an asset economically. The report, however, admits their strategic advantages and emphasises i that the Empire cannot run the risk of Germany, which is more militarist, than she was before the war, establish-, ing submarine and air bases and a large trained native army in Africa athwart the communications to Africa and the Far East. The bulk'of the raw materials Germany desires are not to be found in the African/ colonies, and her currency. difficulties . are largely of her own making. '■ ■

- Brigadier-General Sir Henry Page Croft, in introducing the report, said that Germany's claims have no real substance. ' • ■ . ; . • ■ '■■,'•