GERMAN COLONIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22345, 17 February 1936, Page 8

GERMAN COLONIES

The restoration of lost colonies has become a fixed German objective, the bellicose tone of the demand synchronising with the boast that the country is now armed and able to exert her will without alliances. If Germany is bent on a war of revenge the claim for the colonies will provide her with as good an excuse as any other she could find. The Nazi mentality on the question is revealed by the newspaper which in denouncing the statement of Mr. J. H. Thomas that Britain has not considered relinquishing mandates, says it is a sign of naked Imperialism. What else is the German demand? To this journal the attitude is incomprehensible seeing that it is affirmed at a time when, in its opinion, the existence of the British Empire can be assured only by the maintenance of world peace. "All might be saved by a small sacrifice," it concludes. There, once again, speaks a Germany that does not understand the British soul any more than it did in 1914. There is the idea that the Empire should bargain for peace at the price of surrendering not new possessions, but a trust held on behalf of the Allied Powers; and once more is expressed the old notion that under stress of war the Empire will disintegrate. It was the exKaiser who expected the Dominions to "drop off like ripe fruit" when war was launched. Germany does not lack raw materials of any kind; there is a plethora of them. Her clamour for the colonies i's merely an expression of the new aggression.