BRITAIN’S MANDATE POLICY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20667, 4 March 1937, Page 11

BRITAIN’S MANDATE POLICY

REPLY TO GERMAN DEMANDS United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, February 28. The Empire Economic Union has Issued a report on the “British Colonial Empire and the German Claim,” stressing that foreign nations cannot complain of fiscal treatment. Britain does not draw tributes from the mandates or protectorates; on the contrarj', she helps them when in financial difficulties, and administers them on a basis of the welfare of the inhabitants. They have been an expense rather than an asset economically. The report, however, admits their strategic advantages, and emphasises that the Empire cannot run the risk of a Germany more militarist than before the , war, establishing submarine and air bases, and a large trained native army> in Africa, athwart the communications of Africa and the Far East. The bulk of the raw materials Germany desires are not African. The colonies’ currency difficulties are largely of their own making. Sir Henry Page-Croft, M.P., introducing the report,' said Germany’s claims have no real substance.