COLONIAL QUESTION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 17 December 1936, Page 7

COLONIAL QUESTION

IMPORTANCE TO GERMANY REASONABLE SOLUTION DESIRABLE HERR VON RIBBENTROP’S SPEECH (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) LONDON, 16th December. Herr von Ribbcntrop, the German Ambassador, in his first speech to an English audience at the Anglo-German Fellowship dinner, said: “Germany wants again to be a nation able to pursue her daily work without being constantly preoccupied with the cares due to lack of the necessaries of life. The four-years’ selfsufficiency plan is a step in this direction, but Herr Hitler sees

now, as before, that in the possession of colonies and in world trade lie the most essential means of raising the standard of life of the German people from the present subsistence level. A reasonable solution of the colonial question is therefore most desirable.”

Herr Ribbentrop continued that the only solution of the world’s difficulties lay in a free exchange of goods, and such an adjustment between fn' 1 “haves’ ’and the “have nots” would do more than anything else to create the spirit of contentment necessary for peace and prosperity.

“Britain and Germany had only one conflict in their long history and this was a terrible mistake which must never be repeated. There would not be a winner in the long run in another AngloGerman conflict. Another universal world war would mean an unavoidable victory for world revolution and Bolshevism and the destruction of everything dear to us for generations.”