Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1938. CLAIMS FOR COLONIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 107, 2 November 1938, Page 8

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1938.

CLAIMS FOR COLONIES

Germany's claims for the return of her former colonies did not originate with Herr Hitler. Though they have since received from him a measure of approval and support, they have not weighed with him so heavily as his conception of German interests on the Continent of Europe. Even at this very time, when the agitation for return is running hot and high throughout Germany, Herr Hitler is credited, in a cahle message from Paris yesterday, with having told M. Francois-Poncet that the question could be "momentarily postponed and considered when a more opportune atmosphere would enable a mutually honourable solution." Like his predecessor Bismarck, Hitler is a realist in politics. The founder of Prussia, Frederick the Great, had a maxim that "all distant possessions are a burden to the State.", "A village on the frontier," he said, "is worth a principality 250 miles away." Bismarck, in 1871, during the peace negotiations at Versailles, after the Franco-Prussian War, said: I want no colonies. They are only good for providing offices. For us, colonial enterprises would be just like silks and sables in; Polish noble families,/who for the rest have no shirts., Later, in 1873, he said to the British Ambassador at Berlin: ' Colonies would be a source of weakness^ because they could only be defended by powerful fleetsV ,and Germany's geographical position does hot necessitate, her development into a first-class maritime Power. It^was only in the next decade, the eighties of the last century, when the rush to seize the available vacant spiles in the world, mainly in Africa, developed that Bismarck yielded to public opinion in Germany and joined in the race, very successfully after so late- a start. Yet Bismarck was right in. his reading. In the Great War, powerful as was the German fleet, it was unable to defend the German colonies, and all but one, German East Africa, fell easily into the hands of the Allies ,with their command of the sea. On the Continent/of Europe, Germany succeeded in maintaining herself against odds to the end and was never seriously invaded. As set out in "The Post" on Saturday, Germany's colonial empire in 1914 covered, over a million square miles with a population of some thirteen millions. The white population was under thirty thousand and,the trade merely a fraction of Germany } *s overseas total. In fact, Germany's colonies were, like Italy's today, as much a liability as an asset. Strictly speaking, they did not pay. Yet Hitler can tell the Reichstag, as he did on February 20 of this year: The claim for German colonial possessions will therefore be voiced from year to year with increasing vigour, possessions which Germany did not take away from other countries, and which today are virtually of no value to these Powers, but appear indispensable for our own people. .. . There exists no recipe in world economics which,can.offer a full substitute for the possibility of an intensive economic system within a territory having the same currency. It is in these last few words that the gist of the matter lies. The disintegration of international trade through lack of a common - currency standard, such as gold once provided, certainly affects a country like Germany, straining every nerve to arm itself to the teeth and rationing foreign exchange and devising substitutes for colonial tropical produce in the effort to secure autarky or selfsufficiency. Even the expert economist is baffled by the problem and the layman is certainly not convinced by Hitler's arguments, which seem to be based on the fear of economic sanctions in war rather than a desire for peaceful prosperity. As Professor Bonn points out in the chapter, "The Value of Colonies," in his recent work, "The Crumbling of Empire,"

economic security depends on seapower, which may prove utterly precarious. The purchase of goods in colonies is easier than, in foreign countries, since credit operations can be arranged more conveniently, even if

the colony is poor, but transport is equally, if not more difficult. Self-sufficiency is impossible except for countries like the United States and Soviet Russia, with their vast compact land empires. Japan is endeavouring to become self-sufficient by the conquest of China,, and Germany is now looking overseas for her own sources of the materials she requires for her economy. Hence the effort to build the German navy up to full treaty strength. , So much for Germany's point of view. There remains the attitude of the rest of the world, expected to furnish her with colonies either by the return of her old ones or the cession of new. Britain herself has so far been silent on the matter, but the response of the Dominions concerned and the former German colonies themselves is clear. Neither Dominions nor Colonies desire a return to Germany. It is conceivable that some readjustment of mandates might be considered, but this would hardly satisfy Germany, not now a member of the League of Nations. South Africa is determined that there shall be no restoration to Germany of South-West Africa. Australia is resolute about New Guinea. The Tanganyika Province has vehemently protested against any severance from British East Africa. It is impossible for Britain, however anxious for appeasement in Europe, to ignore the feelings of the Dominions. A new problem therefore is rising which may threaten the solidarity of the Empire and needs the wisest statesmanship on all sides in the search for a satisfactory solution.