GERMAN POLITICS

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2023, 7 March 1907, Page 3

GERMAN POLITICS

THE COLONIAL POLICY. BERLIN, Jan. 13. Herr Dernburg Director of the Colonial Department of the Foreign Office, this evening addressed he annual meeting of the German Chambers of Commerce. It had been announced he would lecture on German colonial development. His address was, however, a strong election speech, permeated with strong Imperial sentiments, and its tone recalled some of Air, Chamberlain’s utterances. - Its object may be effectively summed up in its concluding sentence: “German colonial policy signifies nothing more nor less than the question of the future for national labor, the question of bread for many millions of industrial workers, and the question of the employment of domestic capital in trade, industry, and navigation.” Herr Dernburg began by urging the necessity of colonies to Germany, owing to the expansion of her industry and the increase of her population. He quoted Sir Charles Dilke’s saying, that thp world is rapidly becoming English, and pointed out that in the middle of the eighteenth century there were only 9,000,000 Eng-lish-speaking people, against 20,000000 German-speaking people. To-day, he said, there were 120,000,000 Eng-lish-speaking people, compared with about 70,000,000 German-speaking people, because in the English colonies foreign immigrants were assimilated. Germany had thus lost importance through lack of colonies. A hundred years ago Aloser wrote: “Not Clive, but a Hamburg councillor would command on tho Ganggs h;ul the aims of the German Hansa towns been furthered and not combated in the old German Empire.” What division of territorial interests prevented then, Herr Dernburg proceeded, was threatened to-day by division of class interests and parties. German indusry at present depended more upon foreign countries than ever for raw materials and food supplies for its support. At the same time ,tlie conditions in other countries were changing tremendously. The United States held to-day the first place in the coal and steel industries, and 94 per cent of its food products wore consumed within its own borders, in the Latin countries of South America tlie influence of the United States was making extensive progress, and tho mining undertakings in the Pacific States wore in the hands of Americans. Electric works in Brazil had passed from Gorman to American control. German trade with China was decreasing, while American trade with that country had risen sixfold, and Japanese trado fivefold'. Great changes had taken place, too, in the supply of raw materials. While only twenty years ago there was only a petroleum trust, there were at the present time copper, coffee, and cotton ■combinations for the regulation ol prices. Meanwhile, Germany’s need for imports had in no wise decreased, and a counterpoise could only be found in tlie development of her colonial possessions. The import into Germany in 1905 of such products as wero also raised in the German colonies, namely cotton, copper, rubber, petroleum, rieq, oil-producing fruits, and hemp, amounted to over a million of marks (£50,000,000). The question as to whether Germany could create a considerable market for home products also in German products could be answered in the affirmative. Germany!* share of the whole trade will her colonies (excluding Kiaucliau) rose from 52 per cent to 64 per cent between 1903 and 1905, while England’s share had decreased from 11 per cent to 6 per cent. Herr Dernburg then dealt in oxtenso with the value of the imports from tlie German colonies, a pel the prospects of the latter-. Summing up liis arguments, lie said that the colonies assured the increasing population of Germany, which was compelled to turn to industry owing to the want of land, of great and increasing orders, and therefore work. The colonies could supply cheap raw materials for industries,

and Gorman manufacturers and workbodied in hostile tariffs of private upon price against monopolistic tendencies in foreign countries, as embodied in hostile tariffs of private combinations. The development of the colonies would protect and strengthen-. Gormnyy’s trado balance, since it would not bo necessary to send gold abroad for tbo purchase of raw materials. Colonies woro a powerful strategic weapon in cases where it was necessary to make troatios and arrangements with other . countries for the guarantee of reciprocal trado in raw materials and finished products.