AFRICAN COLONIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 132, 1 December 1938, Page 11

AFRICAN COLONIES

DANGERS OF CESSION

STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE

Addressing the. Overseas League in London, Mr. F. j S.» Joelson, editor of "East Africa and Rhodesia," strongly opposed the cession to Germany of either her old African colonies or any new territories in West Africa, says the "Manchester Guardian." It was now being semi-officially suggested in Berlin that Germany would accept instead of her old colonies a continuous strip on the West Coast of Africa including all or part of Nigeria, the ;Cameroons, and contributions further south from France, Belgium,, and Portugal. Mr. Joelson pointed out that possessions in either. East, or West

Africa would enable Germany to command either the Cape shipping route of the Indian Ocean, as well: as the towns of South, ; East, and West Africa. Since the, Mediterranean might well be unsafe tor British shipping in war, to give (Germany West African harbours would be an act of criminal negligence, which would enormously augment the difficulties of provision-

ing this country. To make concessions to Hitler in Africa would not buy him off, it would merely strengthen Germany's power of attack enormously, and so make war, or the threat of it, more ■ attractive to her. Moreover,' she would demand' a bigger fleet to protect her hew colonies. \ Mr. Joelson recalled the 'memorandum prepared for the German Cabinet in July, 1918, and referred to by Mr. Lloyd George in his new book, on the subject of the belt of 1 territory right across Africa which Germany intend-

Ed to demand if he won the war; That memorandum emphasised the command of-Australian and Indian trade which such territory would give to Germany, the domination of British trade routes, and the man-power from which an army of a million men could! be raised. It was chiefly because Germany had such intentions in, Africa that her colonies;; were taken from her after the war, and. that reason was even stronger tbday. ■[ V T Turning from the strategic to the moral argument, Mr. Joelson said that we would be surrendering millions of; Africans to the Nazi rule which we regarded as worse than death for ourselves. Germany would have no thought of the indiyidual'welfare of the native, only of his usefulness to the State. In pre-war German East Africa he himself had often seen natives treated most barbarously, and he quoted as evidence of German brutality the statement by Bishop Weston, of Zanzibar, that "the Germans rule entirely by fear," and that of aJ former/ Governor of German East Africa, General yon Liebert, that "it- is impossible in Africa to get on without cruelty." That was before racial intolerance had become a cult, arid a warning of what would happen to the natives today had been provided by the recent canonisation of Karl Peters, "probably the worst character among 'German colonial pioneers," whom Hitler described last January as "a model, if stern, colonial administrator." Mr. Joelson ridiculed the idea that a colonial outlet must be found for Germany's surplus population, particu-, larly in view of. the recent announcement that Germans abroad were itQ.be called back for labour service. Germany's population was only 366 people per square mile against Britain's 516 and Belgium's 702; and there were more Germans .yin; Tahgahyikav today than; there were when Germany owned it. Before' the war all Germany's colonies together supplied only 3.5 percent, of her raw materials, and the whole of Africa supplied today only 4 per cent, of the world's output of raw materials, and goods. Germany was not restricted from buying raw materials. in Africa, but it was not the colonies, but self-governing Powers that were the main producers of raw materials. As for the argument that German prestige demanded colonies, Mr. Joelson recalled that Hitler, in V'Mein Kampf," ridiculed the idea of German territories overseas. That statement still stood in the current edition of his book, but if he thought he"could-' bluff or cajole other nations into the gift of strategic "bases, he was to6ctnuch of a realist to miss the opportunity.