King Country Chronicle. Saturday, February 6, 1937. GERMANY’S EX-COLONIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4952, 6 February 1937, Page 4

King Country Chronicle. Saturday, February 6, 1937. GERMANY’S EX-COLONIES.

In his recent speech in the Reichstag Herr Hitler indicated that he intends to make a formal demand for

the return of Germany’s ex-colonies. Though there is a strong feeling in some quarters in Britain for a return of some at least of these colonies, it seems that Japan and France will not consider the demands of Hitler. In such circumstances it will be impossible

for Britain to make any concessions in this way. These colonies were not

annexed by the countries holding the mandates. They are held in trust for the League of Nations to be administered under conditions which allowed an open door to all the trading nations of the world. It therefore seems that Britain could not

hand back the colonies held under mandate without the consent of a majority of the League membership. Another thing is that the native inhabitants of these countries must be willing to again come under Ger-' man rule, and it is not at all likely that they would wish to again come under the sway of Nazi Germany. Japan has signified in no uncertain terms that she will not in any case give up her mandates* over the Pacific Islands. France has expended large sums in the development of her mandated colonies, while Britain has done the same to a lesser extent, and this is going to complicate the position still more. Bismarck was strongly against German colonisation, taking the stand that Germany’s future lay in Europe. Herr Hitler, on the other hand, states that colonies are necessary for supplies of raw materials and to find room for the country’s surplus population. Bismarck, however, was a more astute statesman than ever Herr Hitler is likely to be. The total white population of the German colonies prior to 1914 was less than 25,000, two-thirds of which were in the single colony of South-West Africa. Germany’s total exports to her colonies were less than £3,000,000 a year. These colonies were costly to her Exchequer, which had to make good colonial debits of 295,000,000 marks between 1905 and 1913, not taking into account the cost of colonial administration. A speaker in the Reichstag in 1906 stated: “Germany’s trade with the British Empire amounted to 2,700,000,000 marks in 1905 and did not cost Germany a farthing; and if Germany should lose her trade with Denmark (300,000,000 marks In 1905), it would mean much more than if all her colonial trade

(64,000,000 marks in 1904), ‘went to the devil.’” The position has not altered much to-day. The Germans are not good empire builders, though they make good colonists under other governments. Knowing the past history of the German Colonial Empire, it would appear that Hitler’s demand for a return of the colonies is more a matter of his own prestige than economic necessity. He has promised the people to restore the colonies to Germany and it will be a serious blow to his influence if he fails, as seems almost certain.