The Grey River Argus FRIDAY March 5th 1937. RAW MATERIALS AND COLONIES.

Grey River Argus, 5 March 1937, Page 8

The Grey River Argus FRIDAY March 5th 1937. RAW MATERIALS AND COLONIES.

Expectations persist. that Powers short of raw materials will be supplied from the colonies of other .Powers. Germany is repeating requests for territory, in representations to Britain, who is supposed to have been ruffled by the latest remarks of Ambassador Von Ribbentrop. A while ago Lord Elibank offered Germany New Guinea and Samoa, speaking off his own bat, as plenipotentiary for the two Dominions with the Mandates. At Geneva the latest phase of the question is a recommendation by the League Raw Materials Committee that colonies shall be transformed into mandated territories under a sort of delegated international control, with the open door principle, for all colonies, no trading obstacles, and equal treatment for all countries in all colonial markets. These proposals are worthy of Geneva. They are as likely. of realisation as is League subjection of imperialism. The French object to restore the Cameroons to Germany, and except for Lord Elibank’s vicarious generosity in regard to Samoa and New Guinea, any British mandated territory proposed for return to Germany has met only with British objections. Samoa may be more an obligation than a possession for this country, but nobody in New Zealand would would favour its return to Germany. The mandate is becoming but a matter of form. It is very doubtful if any Geneva dictate could now be enforced against the will of this country. Who Would enforce it, anyway? We have experience of the Maori which should fit us for the care of the Samoan. Incidentally the question of the proper care of the New Zealander, in common with that of the younger generation elsewhere is pressing. Every country is turning attention, not only to the supply of raw materials, but of human beings. No doubt our new National Sports Organisation is some sort of reflex of the new physical culture venture of the British Government. The Germans have been for years going strong in this regard, and now the Russians are to fashion their sports with an eye to military policy, while Italy has a new programme to increase her population. These things doubtless point unitedly to the necessity for some regulation of the supplies of raw materials and food in order to maintain population, but they also show material supplies alone will not maintain even the present density of population. Special inducements are being offered to keep up the birthrate, and special penalties are likely to promote the same object. Economic pressure in Europe may be a cause of anxiety, as, for instance, the presence of 65 million people in Germany, which has not much more than twice our area. Yet the time has passed when any Europeans (can dictate to these Dominions in the matter of the territory which they hold. Germany has no moral claim to any Dutch or Portuguese territory, for none of it was ever her’s, and as regards Australian territory, mandated or not, Germany’s claims are less than any she might have to Samoa, Germany built up her own population on her victory over France in 1870, and never had colonies in the same sense as Britain, France, Holland, Spain and Portugal, who founded their colonial population and holdings, whereas colonies never added one in a hundred or two hundred to the German population. It is with Germany more a case at present of being cut off from supplies by artificial obstacles raised by, imperialistic rivals than anything else. Therefore neither at Geneva nor at any European capital is there any authority to promise Germany any territory under the control of an independent Dominion. While the navigators of Spain, Holland, Portugal, Britain and France acquired colonies for«their countries by right of discovery, Germany had neither discovered nor acquired any till after 1870, and then was given some African territory out of the vast area there whacked up by European Powers, when Bri tish, French and other explorers had opened up the dark contim ent. It is 142 years since all New Guinea was annexed by Britain, but 27 years later a large portion was left to the Dutch, who had

already been there a couple of centuries. Britain, after Queensland annexed Papua, and Captains Morcsly and Yule annexed other parts of the island as British, disallowed these acts, handing over to Germany a large area north of the British and east of the Dutch boundaries. It is this which Australia regained under the Mandate, but Papua is not mandated, being Common wealth territory. Anyway raw materials are not guaranteed by possession of colonies. Unless Italy can raise foreign cash, she cannot do much with Abyssinia. Even Japan has yet little to show for fifty millions she has spent on Manchuria. Germany is not so anxious for distant territories as for things nearer at hand, especially materials that must come from other areas than her former colonies. But New Guinea and Samoa are as possessions something of a protection as well as an obligation for these Dominions. The only likely place for Germany to obtain colonial territory appears to be Africa. She has sent to other nfew lands two hundred colonists for every one she sent to the colonies she formerly held. The Geneva scheme looks fine on paper.. that is about all that can be said fur it.