THE DOMINIONS AND MANDATES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23221, 19 June 1937, Page 12

THE DOMINIONS AND MANDATES

It need not be doubled that the statement issued by t he Australian Associated Press that the discussions at the Imperial Conference clearly showed Australia, South Africa and New Zealand to he at one in their determination not to give up the former German territories which they hold under mandate, and that Great Britain is in agreement with them, reflects accurately the views of the Governments concerned. As an outcome of objectionable Nazi manifestations in Tanganyika, General Hertzog made it perfectly clear a few months ago that there was no question of the return of South-West Africa to Germany, and the only honest course therefore for the Germans in the territory was to co-operate with the Union or go elsewhere. Again, if propaganda on the subject of the return to Germany of Iter former colonies has not been productive of any actual declaration from the Commonwealth Government, it has had the effect

of revealing the existence of an overwhelming sentiment in Australia against any relinquishment of the portion of New Guinea which that dominion holds under mandate. One member of the Federal Cabinet, Mr W. M. Hughes, was very outspoken in a comment upon utterances by the German Ambassador in London on the subject. Nor did he lack Ministerial support in criticism of a statement which Mr Savage was reported to have made on his arrival in England which appeared to express some dissatisfaction with the administration of the Empire’s mandated territories. The New Zealand Government has so far had no occasion, perhaps, to give explicit expression to its attitude respecting German claims in regard to Western Samoa. But it is a reasonable assumption that public opinion in this country will incline strongly to the view that, particularly for strategic reasons, the restoration of the mandated territory there to Germany is definitely undesirable. In an interesting paper dealing with the subject, which the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs recently issued, it is pointed out that the question of the return of Western Samoa to Germany is primarily a political problem. The pertinent reminder is offered that New Zealand has now controlled this territory for twenty-two years against Germany’s fourteen, and that there were close British connections with Samoa before and during the period of German occupation. The compilers of this report express the opinion that from the strategical point of view the real danger would be a peace-time alliance between Japan and Germany made with a view to war in the Pacific, in which case Western Samoa in German hands would give Japan an advanced supply base south of the equator. However that may be, neither Australia nor New Zealand, having regard for their security, can have any wish to return to the prewar position of seeing a foreign Power established, as the cabled message puts It, “on their doorsteps.”