CLAIMS TO COLONIES.

Evening Star, Issue 22890, 23 February 1938, Page 10

CLAIMS TO COLONIES.

Hkbk Hitleu’s insistence that nothing but the. actual soil of which she was deprived by the Treaty of Versailles will satisfy Germany’s demand for the return of colonies makes the greatest difficulty to meeting him on that question. If satisfaction of this German grievance could be given in any other way, probably most Englishmen would be glad to see it afforded. It is worth while to review the most recent opinions expressed by a variety of authorities which show the complications of the problem. Dr Sehacht, head of the', Reichbank, has admitted by implication that her colonies were of very little use to Germany before the war, but all that would be changed, he declares, if she got them back. Their development with German labour and with German capital and credit would bo energetically taken in hand. She would win from them far more raw material and foodstuffs than the mandatory system gains from them to-day. With modern technique, development would be much quicker than in former years. Germany’s raw material problems would immediately be cased. Her living room would also be increased. Not many Germans are likely to live or labour in tropical Africa, but that is by the way., Mr Attlee, Leader of the British Labour Party, is against the return of colonics, which cannot be treated as counters, he has pointed out, in a game of diplomatic bargaining, the first acquirement of their administration being the wellbeing, of the people who live there. “ When we hear colonial claims put forward by what are called the hungry Powers, we have to remember that, if that claim is valid for it is equally valid for Poland, for Czechoslovakia, for Austria, or for Switzerland, and that no dividing up of colonies,, whether our own or anyone else’s, is going to lead to a real settlement.” All colonies, in his view, should be controlled under mandates, first for the peoples of those territories, and secondly for, the whole world. Mr Winston Churchill has pointed out that “Italy, which could hardly have won the war by itself, gained great territorial advantages in the Tyrol and the Adriatic. I am told that some of the Italian conquests by no means correspond any -more to the wishes of the local population than we are assured some of the Germans in Czechoslovakia r.elish the form of government under which they have to live. The Islands of Dodecanese, which were taken partly from Turkey and partly from Greece, are very important islands from the strategic point of viejv, and .these are war conquests of Italy. Lastly, Japan has acquired under the mandate of the League of Nations, with an undertaking not to fortify them, islands in the Pacific whose ultimate destiny is probably more important to the United States than it is to Great Britain.” He agreed with the principles which the British Government has laid down that there was no question of any isolate,d')retrocesßion of colonial 1 war conquests; that such, matters could only be discussed in common with Britain’s former allies; and that “we should only approach the many difficulties revolved if it were part of a general return by Europe to the old standards of tolerance and the final healing of outstanding quarrels;- and, above all, leading in the end to an all-round reduction of armaments.” Not one scrap of territory would be yielded “ just to keep the Nazi kettle boiling.” General Hertzog has made it clear that the claim of his country to South-west Africa rests on more than peace treaties. By a later formal'agreement Germany admitted the claim, and advised her subjects in South-west Africa to become Union subjects. Sir John Harris, secretary to the Anti-slavery and Aborigines Protection Society, believes that if the Powers could come together in colonial conference, % armed with the results of a “fact-finding” commission, and liberated from the delusion that there is no other solution than a crude ' territorial one, much might be accomplished; but that does not satisfy Herr Hitler. Lord Noel Buxton suggests that Germany might be given colonial territory, not in full sovereignty, but under mandate, in which case all other colonies in Africa should be brought under the mandate system. “No doubt, in most of our colonies the existence of a mandate would make little actual, difference to our administration. If in any instance the mandate should necessitate a change in our treatment of the natives, we, who believe in the doctrine of trusteeship, should be the last to raise objections.” That seems the most promising road to a solution, if any solution is to be found.