GERMAN COLONIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22544, 8 October 1936, Page 20

GERMAN COLONIES

NEW GUINEA MANDATE! RETENTION DEMANDED AUSTRALIAN EX-SOLDIERS [from our own correspondent] SYDNEY, Oct. '2 The confident assertion of a prominent German business man in ILabaul that within two years the Mandated Territory of New Guinea would again be under the German Flag received a strong reply from the annual returned soldiers' congress in Sydney. The congress recorded, with one dissentient vote, its strong resentment at any suggestion of a return of the territory to Germany, and directed the executive of the league to make protests whenever and wherever the proposal might be put forward. Mr. T). A. Fowler, who recently returned from a visit to the territory, told the congress that many }>ersons of German descent resident in the territory had advanced as a reason for the /agreement by England and Australia to Germany's demand for its reversion, that it would he better for Australia to have another European Power installed there to counteract the influence of Japan.

Qerman-Japanese Treaty "If there are any delegates who think there is any foundation for this idea, let me remind them of the recent treaty between Germany and Japan, whose present interests are identical," added Mr. Fowler. "The league's protest will lead it into active opposition to the societies specially formed in Germany to advocate the return of what they term their lost colonies. Their advocacy may or may not be inspired by their Government, but it is becoming increasingly insolent. They must definitely be told that 'what we have we hold.' "Germany's reading of our psychology to-day is that we will give her anything she demands ratheY than fight. Sick as we are of war, and anxious as we are to prevent it, let it not be said that we ran into hiding at the first crack of Hitler's whip." Two Reasons for Retention

There were two reasons why the territory was worth fighting for, Mr. Fowler said. First, it sat on top of Australia, and once under a foreign nation's rulo it would become a naval and air force base. An attack could bo launched on Australia in a few hours, and her resistance broken by flocks of bombing aeroplanes before assistance could come from overseas. The Singapore base would bo nullified if these possessions were fortified, and their harbours defended by minefields. Secondly, the territory was a reserve of wealth which was increasingly valuable to Australia. Its mineral wealth had been developed by Australians, who had also built up a profitable trade in copra, cocoa, coffee, pearl shell, beche-de-mer, pearls, and other tropical products. "Let us remember," he concluded, "that the possession of colonies did not prevent Germany from forcing a devastating war on an unprepared world before; surely we returned men should be the last to forget it." Former Minister's Support

Mr. Fowler's views found immediate support, outside the congress, from Sir Charles Marr, M.P., who, as a former Minister in charge of territories, kpows the position intimately. He said that bound up with the question of Australian retention of mandates over former German possessions were Japan's. plans for the exGerman colonics she holds.

"In support of the theory that New Guinea should he given back to Germany," he continued, "there has been advanced the plea that a German navy in the Pacific would provide a buffer against the hordes of Asia. Australia has already upon her north-eastern doorstep the problems of a convulsed East. Tlie Germans in New Guinea, excellent fellows though they were, and, in many cases, industrious and painstaking cultivators of the soil, were not good colonists. Their iron rule, if it commanded the respect oV the fearful, aroused no feeling of love for the white man. "Finally, there are Australian graves in New Guinea —the graves of the iirst Australians to shed their blood in the war.!' - Y*-'