THE NEW GERMAN COLONIAL MINISTER.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1350, 30 January 1912, Page 7

THE NEW GERMAN COLONIAL MINISTER.

Dr.. SOLFS APPOINTMENT. ~ The ijows of the appointment of Dr. £sm to bo Secretary ot ,State for the Colonics was not received with enthusiasm in TT J",', t!l0 "S ! ' (states the "Morning 1 ost s correspondent) lio is anything but tho cut-anu-clrifHl bureaucrat ot whom y> many complaints are just now being made, iho Centre' party would have preferred the Secretaryship to bo in ttie hands-.of Laron von Ikchenberg, who lias been Governor'-of German East Africa siiicd 180(1. Other politicians contend that Dr. sou has had experience in the adminis(ration only of small colonies, and that other Governors are available who have a fuller understanding of the groater colonial aims of tho German people. Dr. Solf has been subjected to very severe criticism (continues the correspondent) for h'.s manner of government in Samoa. In tho first place ho is blamed for discountenancing small settlers, -his idea being that the interests of the colonies were best served when exploitation was placed in tho hands of laTge companies, or of singlo planters with abundant capital at their disposal. Secondly, his critics contend that Dr. Solf did not pay sufficient attention to the necessity of encouraging the use of the German languEgo; and, thirdly, his critics accuse him of manifesting a preference for English methods of colonisation. Dr. Solf has undoubtedly done- his -.best to safeguard thq interests of the natives under his- administration, and to .shield them from the. rapacity cf adventurous speculators. " The general f«.'!in«r in political cireks is, that since Dr. Solf has the confidence of the-Kmnerc-r it is only just to leave him a free iield and wait and see what administrative capacities lie develops. Dr. Solf, wlio is forty-nine years of age, eoinrs of an old Berlin family,- and his father was for a considerable period a member of the Citv Council. lie started his career as a philologist, made a special study of Sanscrit, and went to India- for research worlt in Oriental languages. Tie drifted into diplomacy in Calcutta, passed his examinations, bccame a judge at Dar-es-Salaam, and later president of the Municipal Council of Apia. When Samoa brcame a German possession he was made Imperial Governor. Dr. Solf happened to lv» in Berlin at the time of the retirement of Dr. von T,inder|uist in cnnntction with the Morocco settlement, and was entrusted with the temporary charge of the Colonial Office.