NAZI ATTACKS ON EMPIRE OPINION

Southland Times, Issue 23648, 25 October 1938, Page 5

NAZI ATTACKS ON EMPIRE OPINION

“COLONIES ON FALSE PRETENCES” INITIATIVE REPUDIATED BY GERMANY (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) BERLIN, October 23. The semi-official newspaper, Diplomatische Korrespondenz, angrily attacks the demonstration against the return of the colonies in parts of the British Empire. “Such manoeuvres will not influence in any way Germany’s standpoint or her course of action,” it says. “This disquiet shows that the circles concerned feel that things cannot be maintained without a change. “The Reich claims that these possessions were taken under false pretences. It makes no difference which Power received the colonies, and even if they proved extremely useful to a State or a Dominion the initiative for a settlement does not lie with Germany.”

NO SURRENDER OF NEW GUINEA “SUICIDAL AND CRAVEN” POLICY SYDNEY, October. 24. • Suggestions that Australia should hand over New Guinea to Germany could not be seriously entertained, said the Minister for External Affairs (Mr W. M. Hughes) in a broadcast address. “Such a policy would not only be suicidal but craven,” said Mr Hughes. “The mandated territory was granted to us in trust, and we shall not relinquish our trust.”

GERMANY’S EMPIRE UNPROFITABLE FAILURE OF NAVY TO HOLD COLONIES Germany’s pre-war colonies were in area five times the size of Germany itself, and supported a population of 14,000,000—0ne-quarter of the pre-war population of Germany. But in all that colonial empire of more than 1,000,000 square miles only 23,000 Germans—or fewer than lived in Paris —had settled; the colonies supplied Germany with about one-half of one per cent, of her imports, and took only seven-tenths of one per cent, of her exports; and subsidies were paid by Germany to maintain her expensive possessions.

By far the biggest and most valuable of ffie colonies were in Africa, a new continent that had not been fully carved up by the Powers earlier in the field when, in 1884, Germany belatedly set out to acquire for herself an overseas Empire.

The African colonies were: Cameroons, 191,000 square miles in area, with 3,500,000 inhabitants, including 1400 Europeans; now mainly French. German East Africa, 385,000 square miles in area, with 7,500,000 inhabitants, including 3579 Germans; now divided into Tanganyika, administered by Britain, and Ruandu-Urundi, administered by Belgium. German South-West Africa, of 322,000 square miles, with.'a population' of 200,000 including 12,000 Germans;

now administered by the Union of South Africa, which it adjoins. Togoland, 33,000 square miles in area, with a population of 1,500,000, including 363 Europeans; now mainly French.

OTHER COLONIES The other colonies, obtained by annexation or, in the case of the Caroline and Marshall Islands by purchase from Spain for £837,000, were:— Kaiao-Shau, in the Chinese province cf Shantung, only 200 square miles in area, with a population of 33,000; given to Japan by the Versailles Treaty, but later handed over to China. Western Samoa, 1000 square miles in area, but very rich, with a population of 36,000, including 500 whites; now under mandate to New Zealand. Bismarck Archipelago, and the Solomon Islands, of a total area of 295,000 square miles and a population of 295,000, including 470 Europeans; now Australian and British mandates. German New Guinea, of 70,000 square miles with a population of 110,000, including 720 Europeans; now an Australian mandate. Caroline and Marshall Islands, including the Caroline Group (560 square miles, population 50,000), the Pelew Group (26 small islands, population 10,000), Ladrones (250 square miles, population 10,000), and the Marshalls 150 square miles, population 15,000); still in theory a Japanese mandate, but held by Japan as a possession since she left the League of Nations. Germany gave up her claims to these colonies when she signed the Treaty of Versailles, but, strictly speaking, it is incorrect to say that she was stripped of them by the treaty. Her navy, designed to make her a world Power, had proved inadequate for the defence of an empire, and all the colonies were lost to superior forces during the war. Although those Nazis who are en-

thusiastic about the recovery of the colonies—and until recently Hitler did not support them—base their claims on Germany’s need for raw materials, none of the colonies produce the materials she needs most.

From this and any other point of view they are far less valuable than the Czechoslovakian territory Hitler has just acquired, and for strategic reasons they are far harder to defend. But if they were used as submarine and air bases they would be of great value to Germany in a war against any other world power. More than the actual loss of the colonies, the Germans resent the clause of the Versailles Treaty, which says that Germany is “permanently unfit for colonial activity.” This allegation was supported by remarkable documentary evidence of brutality and of great falls of population under some of the German authorities; but it does not take a very astute Nazi propagandist to show that few, if any, colonial Powers before the war had completely clean hands after colonial populations had given them trouble.