MIXED FEELINGS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 101, 30 April 1936, Page 7

MIXED FEELINGS

MANDATES QUESTION —— ) " DOOR SHOULD BE CLOSED ” I A STATISTICAL SURVEY [By Telegraph—Press Association —CcpyrisfhtJ LONDON, ril 28. The Morning Post’s political correspondent says tnat the Prime Minister's statement on mandated territories de daring that the Government would not commit itself to any .settlement of the problem without giving the fullest opportunity for discussion in the House ’ of Commons, was received with mixed ■ feelings in the lobbies The majority of the Conservative back-benchers want the Guvernmei.t uncompromisingly to refuse to consider * demands for a iransier, ami believe 1 that the Government is showing a la- - mentable lack of understanding of the t mentality of Germans, who will not cease propaganda until they arc lirmiv ’ told that the doors are closed. I Institute’s Investigations. The Royal Institute of International . Affairs has issued an exhaustive statis- [ tical survey seeking to determine how r * far the economic difiicultiv- of Italy, Germany, and Japan are due to lack ’ of colonial possessions. Convincing ’ ligures relating to the distribution o: > essential raw materials show that these . powers “tend consciously or uncocsciously to overstate the economic advantages of colonial changes.” The report adds that the colonics relieve Britain of a deficiency of only 9 j out of 34 basic raw matenais and if . another Powei annexed the whole oi the British Colonial Empire, apart from the Dominions, it would still have inadequate supplies of raw materials, in ! eluding several of the most iniport- > ant. The German Colonial Research • Bureau’s claim that Tanganyika would support 9,000,000 people, coupled with Italy's similar claims in Abyssinia, - should be scrutinised in the light of ■ the fact that the whole of Africa, alter ; decades of colonisation, contains only r 3,000,000 Europeans. Other statistics ’ show little discrimination in favour of ’ the -Mother Countries. On the coni trary, the principle of open access is fairly generally observed.