GERMANY’S LOST COLONIES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 18 December 1936, Page 4

GERMANY’S LOST COLONIES

THE German Ambassador at London, addressing an English audience, has pointed out that “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,” and he pleaded for “a reasonable solution of the colonial question,” which means that Germany asks for the return of the colonies which she lost in the Great War. But for the present she address Britain. She does not address Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, who are in occupation of important territories which they captured from Germany, and hold under mandate from the League of Nations, though it is common knowledge that they regard such territories as an integral part of their respective countries. The League’s authority is notoriously weak, the nations which captured Germany’s colonies are strong. Britain, who captured vast tracts of Germany’s African territory, may return them, but there is no likelihood that Japan will ever relinquish possession of the innumerable Pacific islands which she captured from Germany, and it is equally certain that Australia and New Zealand will refuse to surrender possession of the exGerman territory which they hold. But some few years ago a responsible British Minister expressed the British Government’s willingness to consider the relinquishing of those ex-German territories which Britain holds under mandate in Africa. Evidently those are the territories to which Herr von Ribbentrop referred, when recently he spoke in London. But should he not have addressed his remarks to the League of Nations, in whom the said , territories are vested, and from whom Britain derives the legal right to administer them? Britain cannot relinquish possession of those territories without permission of the League, and Germany cannot very well apply for possession of them to the League, since she separated herself from that body in a manner which was calculated to damage its reputation and authority, and to give offence to its members. So it will be seen that for Britain to return the colonies which she captured from Germany is not the simple thing it may seem to be, and that by ignoring the League in the matter Herr von Ribbentrop committed a fundamental mistake which may seriously complicate the problem. Britain may not have any great use for the territories which she captured from Germany, but their final disposal does not rest with either of them, but with the League, and while that body survives its authority should be respected. It is such action as that of Herr von Ribbentrop, who ignored the League’s vested interests in Germany’s lost colonies, which has done so much to undermine that body’s authority, and weaken its Covenant.