MANDATE ISSUE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 71, 23 February 1937, Page 10

MANDATE ISSUE.

PLAIN SPEAKING. 0»ily the League of Nations can transfer a mandate, subject to the consent of the mandatory Power, and of the inhabitants of the territory concerned. This is. Whitehall’s view of the German claim for restoration ot colonies. “Thank you for nothing, Mr Hitler!” is the heading on a Daily Express article, which says: “The German dictator has demanded his lost colonies back. Now he will get the answer of the democracies holding them. The answer is ‘no.’ “The plain fact is that, even if we wanted to hand back the German colonies we could only make a partial surrender. It is not Britain who governs South-West Africa. It is the Union of South Africa. Great Britain, Australia, and New' Zealand administer Nauru and Australian New Guinea. New Zealand manages Samoa. All have made it abundantly clear that they are not letting go their mandates. “Japan, Hitler’s new-found friend in the Far East, is also sitting tight. So if Hitler is to be given another bun to make him a good boy, it is Britain who will have to provide it. Shall we give him Tanganyika, breaking the all-red line from Cairo to the Cape? We have seen Italy in Abyssinia. We see open intervention by both in Spain. Are we going to assist in throwing these great hungry Powers athwart our communications with our own Empire?”