NO COLONIES FOR GERMANY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16762, 31 January 1918, Page 5

NO COLONIES FOR GERMANY

"BASES FOR MILITARISM" DECLARATION BY GEN. SMUTS VIEWS OF DOMINIONS UPHELD Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Reed. 9.15 p.m.) LONDON. Jan. 29. A lecture was delivered by General J. C. Smuts, a member of the War Cabinet, before the Royal Geographical Society. He described the campaign in East Africa. He said it was clear the Germans had decided to develop the country, not as an ordinary colony, but as a tropical possession for the cultivation of raw materials. They systematically discouraged white colonisation. Harsh as the Gorman system was, ho was not prepared to deny it was perhaps the most scientific, and in the long run, the most profitable method for exploiting the tremendous natural resources of the tropics. General Smuts said German colonial aims were entirely dominated by a farreaching conception of world politics. (Received 9.30 p.m.) Reuter. LONDON. Jan. 29. In his lecture before the Royal Geographical Society, General Smuts said Germany's ultimate object in Africa was to establish a great Central African Empire, including the British, French, Belgian, and Portuguese possessions. Germany was now claiming the return of her colonies in order to resume her march towards this objective. She aimed at securing recruiting grounds for vast native armies and naval and submarine bases on the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans, dominating both ocean routes and bringing British and American sea power to nought. The native armies would be useful, Germany calculated, in the next great war, to which the German general staff was already giving serious attention. The untrained levies of the Union of South Africa would go down before these Ger-man-trained hordes, who also would bo able to deal with North Africa and Egypt without the deflection of any white troops from Germany. The scheme would also mean that a' great army would be planted on the flank of Asia, the force of which would be felt throughout the Middle East as far as Persia, and even further.

Tho British Empiro could not allow the militarisation of natives or naval and submarine bases to be employed for schemes of world power. " The conquered German colonies can only be regarded as a guarantee for the future peace of the world," General Smuts declared. "I am sure this opinion is shared by the vast bulk of the peoples of the Dominions. They are largely responsible for the destruction of the German colonial empire, and consequently the prevention of the German military system spreading to the ends of the earth. They should not be asked to consent to the restoration to militant Germany of fresh footholds for militarism in tho Southern Hemisphere, endangering the future of their rising communities. They wanted a new Monroe doctrine for the South for their protection against European militarism."