PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3335, 13 February 1918, Page 57

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

THE FUTURE OF THE EX-GERMAN COLONIES. Last week I gave several reasons why the British dominions beyond the seas should have a strong say in the disposai of the ex-German colonies. Let me add another. Germany make* no secret of the fact that the colonies are wanted by her simply as a means of providing her with raw products and as an additional market for N her manufactures. To these ends natives are to be sacrificed. They will not' be considered excep't as " cannonfodder "..to further Germany's aims in war, and as so much material to be used up to further German commercialism. When Spain opened up the New World she used up the natives, and then turned here eyes to West Africa to get a fresh supply, and' so we had Spanish, English, and • other ships .loading up cargoes of slaves on the Guinea Coast and elsewhere, and selling these to Spaniards in the New World just as we sell cattle at Bumside.' Germany with her Kultur looks upon other races as inferior, and the coloured races as only fit to be enslaved, using as her tools the native military races, such as. the Askaris in German Eiast Africa, much as the Sikhs and Gurkhas are ueea by us, but with this difference; The Sikhs and Gurkhas are volunteers, and are used by us to keep order and not with the special objects of expanding our territories and crushing native aspirations reasonably expressed. In discussing the German colonies now in our possession I gave three reasons why they should not be restored, and promised to write more upon them in this Chat. BRITISH PRESTIGE. . Prestige in the eyes of many does not count for much, and the upholding of it savours of Imperialism and aggrandisement. But those who think that way do not get to the bottom of things. It would take more than the space allowed for a Chat to work out this point. In the eyes of ignorant natives "might is right," and might is right appeals, too, to the' civilised races and nations/ For instance, gratitude alone should have brought Greece in on our side at the beginning of the warj and the same applies to Turkey, for what nation in the past has stood by Turkey to the extent we have? But these and other nations, who by our past actions towards them merit their sympathy and active co-operation, are at present neutral, or more or less willing helpers of Germany, because German force can make things unpleasant for them. So they reason something like this: If we side with Britain and she loses, to a certainty we shall incur the enniitv Of Germany, and be made to suffer mercilessly for it; on the other hand, if we give covert assistance to Germany and she loses, we know that Britain will not make us suffer for our past sins. It will be easier and better for us materially — the moral side I am not considering at all—to side with Germany than to side with Britain, though Britain will win. This exercise of control over uncivilised or partially-civilised races goes by the name of prestige, and in German East Africa and elsewhere at times, especially at the beginning, Germans, by the capturing of Britishers and humiliating them in the eyes of the natives, sought to destroy the native respect for the British. The natives saw Britishers confined as prisoners, made to wait upon natives, clean conveniences for them, obey them, put up with German insults and humiliations, and often the natives«themselves, who had been brought under British influence and had been Christianised, were brutally treated just because they had been friendly with the British. Again, when the Germans had to retire before British troops —very few of them whites, however —they warned the natives what to expect when they came back, eo the natives by past experience know what to expect from the Germans whether they come back as the conquering or the conquered. On this point the author of "In German Gaols: a Narrative of Two Years' Captivity in German East Africa," says : " British prestige- in. the East speaks of British justice and British honour, and. speaking in no lower sense than this, I say that British .prestige would suffer if wo were to allow the German flag to fly in East Africa again ; ; and " The German threats of retaliation for tho help and friendliness which the Africans have shown to us, and the promise of freedom which our present occupation holds out, alike demand that for the sake of our prestige we shall render those threats migatory by fulfilling to the African the promise which,

whether wo realise It or not, we seem to him to be making now." Taking human! ij and not Empire expansion as our motto, we should not allow the Hun to enter again into possession. And this is the point of view Genera's Botha and Smutz take. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. Before the war there were three groups of Christian missions—(1) the Universities' Missions to Central Africa (known as the and the Church Mission Society (the U.M.S.) ; (2) the Roman Catholic Missions of the "White Fathers, the "Black Fathers/' and Benedictines; and (3) the German Lutheran Missions. The last can be dismissed in a few words. " They are much more industrial than evangelistic, and have only a comparatively small number of Christians attached to them." Of the Roman Catholic missions only the Benedictines, a relatively small one, working in the south, could be regarded as Germans. "Both the White Fathers and the Black Fathers are essentially French (and are known by the natives as the ' French religion '). These French missions would certainly be threat* ened with difficulty, even if not with destruction, by a return of the German administration." There remains the English missions, which have been testified to by British and Germans alike, and among the formei are Sir Rider Haggard and Sir H. H. Johnston, who know the African native mind like a book. When the Germans came practically every boy who could read or write or who knew a trade had been taught by the British missions. I have, already shown how unbearable would be the lot of those civilised by us or known to have come under our influence, or of any natives who have been friendly to us in recent years, Christian or not. "*S FOR THE SAKE OF THE PEOPLE. When we know so niuch of the wholesale killings of porters and others, the horrible mutilations and merciless floggings in the Cameroon?, German . South-west and German East Africa/these facte alone are sufficient to put Germans "outside .the pale of civilisation; so no wonder that General Smuts—-and the Boers of South Africa are no sentimentalists—has told us he shudders to think of the fate that - awaits the Africans if the Germans were ever to come back. In the present war we know 'of massacres in districts occupied for a short time by a British advance guard and then reoccupied by Germans, the only excuse for which was that the people had been glad • to see the British troops, and in some cases had consented to sell them food, as if they coukLhavo. refused to do so even if they had wished." ARGUMENTS FOR RESTORATION. The first given is that Germany have opportunity for expansion. How? Commercially? By emigration? Commercially, under pre-war conditions, Germany, ;• was expanding so rapidly that, in- the opinion of. many of us, had she continued her "peaceful penetration," an other, generation she could have done What she liked. Expansion by emigration she does not want, for since the partition of Africa—■ was it in 1884?—millions have gone to the British dominions, to the United States, South-America, and elsewhere, but only a few thousands to her own colonies. Duncdin has jhree or four times the population of white people that the whole of the German colonies had. The second is that the forfeited colonies ought to bo restored on the ground of abstract jxiSTicK. ' Abstract justice I "Jusitice involves retribution." . . . In the name of outraged justice, as in that of humanity, we demand the freedom of Belgium and of Serbia; justioe and humanity alike demand of us we shall keep the African peoples free from the German yoke. .; ' • ■■■ Thirdly, we should be magnanimous to a fallen foe. But to expect magnanimity, presupposes expression of contrition for wrongs done. But apart from that, 'let those who would be magnanimous at the expense of the African [New Guinea-, Samoa, etc., also] put themselves and those they love the best into the-grip of the German, and we shall perhaps be able to recognise their sincerity, even though we may deplore their folly.".?: 1 " And so I could go on. But what's'the use? I only hope that the statesmen, and now politicians prompted by " The Unseen Hand," will-see that Germany is punished as a criminal, and forgiven vrhett as a nation it makes all oossible reparation for the world catastrophe it precipitated, and is prevented from sinning again.