BID FOR COLONIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23033, 10 May 1938, Page 19

BID FOR COLONIES

GERMANY DETERMINED WARNING TO BRIfAIN LORD LONDONDERRY'S BOOK f [from our own correspondent] . LONDON, April 14 In office and out of office, in the Cabinet and in public; for more than five years past the Marquess of Londonderry has been an earnest advocate of an understanding between this country and Germany, says a special correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. His attitude and action have been dictated by the deep conviction that the folicy which he lias recommended so consistently is essential to peace; and as he is so much in earnest and so unquestionably disinterested, his exhortations deserve the most respectful attention. Lord Londonderry has not spared himself. Besides exerting his influence upon official and public opinion in this country he has several times visited Berlin and held confidential communion with the people who matter in Germany—with Herr Hitler himself, with Field-Marshal Goering, with Herr von Ribbentrop and others. These activities have, he feels, been both misunderstood and misrepresented in this country, and so he has thought it desirable to write a book, "Ourselves and Germany," with the double purpose of stating the German case and vindicating his own part in the story. , * Growing Strength ol Germany The book, which is published to-day, contains this warning: "With her growing military strength and increasingly efficient organisation it looks as if Germany is prepared to stop at nothing if her demands,, particularly in regard to her lost colonial territories, do not meet with some measure of satisfaction in the near future." Lord Londonderry declares that, whereas no international action could he taken with propriety to oppose Herr Hitler in his policy, in regard to Austria, a totally different situation arises should the German policy of expansion extend to the incorporation or forcible acquisition of Czechoslovakia. "I still earnestly press forward my plea that it is vital for an international understanding to be reached," he writes. "I have made no secret of my fears .and of the fact that the time at our disposal is getting short. If we find there is no understanding between the German Reich and all those countries who are so passionately desirous of establishing peace, then the outlook is gloomy indeed, and we are necessarily and properly forced back it'to further consideration of intensive national rearmament for the maintenance of the security of our people." What Herr Hitler Said Lord Londonderry, in describing his unofficial visit to Germany in 19.%, states that Herr Hitler told him:- — "Germany wants to live in close friendly alliance with England, and for England perhaps the time will come when she will have to consider the question whether an active friendship with Germany, or the possession of a couple of colonies which, for the British Empire, are not of very great value, is the more important." The second unofficial visit which Lord Londonderry paid to Germany was at the invitation of Field-Marshal Goering in September, 1937,