GERMANY'S LOST COLONIES

Otago Witness, Issue 3334, 6 February 1918, Page 17

GERMANY'S LOST COLONIES

LECTURE BY GENERAL SMUTS. (By Cable.) In the course of a lecture before the Royal Geographical .Society, General Smuts said the Germans' ultimate object in Africa was to establish a great Central African empire, including British, Belgian, and Portuguese possessions. They ( were now claiming the return of their colonies in order to resume their march towards this object. They aimed at securing recruiting grounds for vast native armies and naval and submarine bases in the Atlantio and Indian Oceans, dominating both ocean routes and bringing the Anglo-American sea power to nought. Native armies would be useful in the next great war, to which the German General Staff was already giving serious attention. Untrained levies of the Union of South Africa would to down before these German-trained ordes, who would also be able to deal with North Africa and Egypt without the deflection of any of the white troops from Germany. General Smuts, lecturing before the Royal Geographical Society, described the East African campaign. lie said: it was clear that 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 German system Avas, he was not prepared to deny that it was perhaps the most scientific and, in the long run, the most profitable for exploiting the tremendous natural resources of the tropics. German colonial aims were entirely dominated by their far-reaching conception of world politics. It would also, said General Smuts, mean the planting on the flank of Asia of a great army whose force could be felt throughout the Middle East as far as Persia and even further. The British Empire could not allow the militarisation of the natives or that naval submarine bases should be employed for schemes of worldpower. The conquered German colonies could only be regarded as guarantees for the future peace of the world. He was sure that this opinion was shared by the vast bulk of the dominions. They were largely responsible for the destruction of the German colonial empire, and consequently for the prevention of the German military system from spreading to the ends of the earth. They should not be asked to consent to the restoration for militant Germany of fresh footholds for militarism in the southern hemisphere, endangering the future of their rising communities. They wanted a new Monroe Doctrine for the south, for protection against European militarism. VALUE TTTK SOUTH SEA COLONIES. The Cologne Gazette states' that the Association of South Sea Firms at Hamburg has sent a memorandum to the Reichstag, emphasising the necessity of gettiiig back the South Sea colonies, pointing out their great value, not only because of their productivity, but because of their great strategic value and favourable situation for the establishment of wireless stations.