The League and its Destroyers

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 70, 15 December 1937, Page 3

The League and its Destroyers

H. R.

FRENCH.

Sir, — So Mr Mussolini has left the League of Nation®. And Germany will at last keep her word and peace if she is handed back her pre-war colonies and a few other trifles. And a Japanese -wool buyer on a visit to Napier courteously asks that his dear country might be left undisturb'ed in its saerificial task of making China as happy as New Zealand! A fortnight ago tbe Union of South Africa apologised to Mr Mussolini becuuse one of its papers published , something he did not like. Japan strongly remonstrated to the United States- Government because the New York Life ridieuled the idea that the Japanese Emperor was a God. The German Government made the Nazi flag the German national flag, so that if the waterside workers of New York jeered at it again the proud Americans would be duly humbled. Just how long are violence, bluffm and lie3 to remain without adequate reply? A British Government apologises to Mussolini when for years he has had skilled agents at Avork in Egypt and in other countries undermining British prestige;. when, under his direetion, broadcasts in Arabie and other languages have openly carried on the same subversive propaganda; when the Italian Press at his command has poured out such a concentration of abuse that at last the British Government was forced to remonstrate. Not once or twice has Mr Mussolini. told the world how he would sever a British trade route just when he so decided. For a leader of a country with four to five thousand iniles of vunerable coast-line to talk to the greatest naval Power of the world in such a 'strain is Tather silly. As for Mr Mussolini and the League, the peoples of the earth ought to have been told how the League bowled him out more than once snruggling arms in defiance of Italy's most solemn pledge. Because such aetions have not receivtd the publicity they should have had, many people have derided the League and its work. Messrs Mussolini and Company supply the tune which they sing. There are magazine articles and books written or inspired by Mr Mussolini which tell of his greatness. Many are written by adoring females. A more than sufficient antidote is George Seldes' "A Sawdnst Caesar." The title is wrong, for Mussolini has more itidividual power than any Caesar possessed; but the documented facts presented by Seldes will be a revelation to most readers. The book is in our publio library. It has become a bad habit to de- ■ nounce the Versailles Peace Conference and deny it of any virtue. It is open for debate whether any previous peace conference sought to do justice with such insistence. It could not * come within a ' ' cooee ' ' of pe.rf ection because of age-long hatreds and the intermingling of xaces, yet attempts were made fox the protection of native xaces and of minorities. When a man like Genexal Smuts xecords that the problems that he had to help to solve at the Peace Conference did more than anything in his life to mellow his somewhat angular outlook, then criticism should at least be inf ormed. It was far more trouble than use to force Germans to sign that their leaders were responsible for the Great War. Yet, since that signing, a volume of German. evidence confirms the unwilling testimony. That clause in the peace treaty can. well be exeised if it will please anyone. If historians are allowed to search out and tell out the truth, whatever it be, that should suffice. When tlie demand is made for the return of the pre-war colonies, then more is involved than the German desire to have handed back the stakes they lost in their great gamble. In the darkest days of the war, the Germans revealed something of what they intended to secure. One was the a'cquirement of considerable colonial territory belonging to other nations. Had such been secured, would the Germans differ from the Japanese? The Japanese support the present German demand as long as it does not affect their holdings. German colonisation began in 1884. Bismarck had previously urged the Freneh to colonial expansion, and Clemenceau told his fellow-countrymen that the sole aim of such advice was to weaken France with overseas r,esponsibilities. In a short 30 years of German colonisation the record is black. Why did the Herero rebel in German SouthWest Africa? The causes given are: Systematic ill-treatment, flogging, appropriation of cattle, debauching of women, interferenee with native customs, and denial oi justice. "Kill everyone, and take no prisoners," said Governor von Trotha. Out of every six natives, five were slain! The full circular of Governor Seitz, issued on May 31, 1912, can be published if conformatory evidence is needed. Dr. Karl Peters was the founder of German East Africa. Herr von Puttkamer was Governor of the German Cameroons. Both were tried by German Courts for terrorism, plunder burning of villages, flogging and ehaining of women and children, forced concubinage and murder. Both were found guilty. This is a small part of the report of the German Seeretary of State, Herr Deinburg, riade to the Budget committee of the Reichstag on February 18, 1908, on fiis return from a personal inspeetion of German colonies in Africa: "Labourers are obtained under eireumstances which could not be distinguishcd from slave hunts. . . It has even happened that settlers seat themselves at wells with revolvers, and have prevented the natives from watering their cattle, in order to compel them to leave the latter behind. ... It malces an unfavourable impression to see so many white men go about with negro whips. I even found one on the table of the princip . pay office of Dar-es-Balaam." That is part of the damning testimony from the most responsible of all German witnesses. Let an American be heard. Listen to Mr E. A. Powell, who spent some years in the American consular scrvice in Egypt. In his book "The Last Frontier," he tells of his personal investigations into African colonial administration. "There is not a town in German East Africa where you cannot see boys from eight to 14 years, shackled by chains, running from iron eollar t iron collar and guarded by soldiers with loaded rifles, doiug the work of men under a deadly sun. Natives with bleeding backs are constantly making their wajr into British and Belgian territory

with tales of maltreatment by German planters, while stories of German tyranny, bi_tality, corruption — instances of which 1 witnessed — were staple topics of conversation on every club verandah and steamer's decks along these coasts.'* Should Germany's dominion be restored? There is another chapter relating to war preparations in German colonial territories which menaced neighbouring friendly States, and the activities of the abnormal consular staff in Capetown, which cannot be forgotten when Germany poses for the world's sympathy. If Germany is^o desirous for peace, why has she built strategie railways to the frontier of Holland? Holland's Premier cries: "We will never yield a rood of our home, or of our overseas territory." We British invite the Germans to tell us just what would they like. As for JajJun, their so-called Chambcrs of Commerce in Sydney and in the United States are inviting Englislispeakiug people to forget everything but the fact that they are purchasers of raw materials. Australian woolgrowers decry criticism of Japan 's violation of her piedges and of Chinese territory because Japan buys Australian wool! The cotton-workers of Lancashire were made of more heroic stufE when their sympatliies went out for the freedom of the American slaves, while they lacked work and food because the war checked the cotton supplies from the southern States. The British cocoamakers had more manhood when they told their Government they woald not buy any Portuguese bearis until the disguised slavery was tnde.d. You published a coluinn statement from the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in Sydney. A New Zealand missionary in China, on seeing the statement, cabled it was untrue. The last mail from the States brought me two statements. One was by Dr. Albert Shaw, well known as the editor of the American Review of Reviews. It is being circulated by the San Francisco Japanese Chamber of Commerce. It is headed "Minding Our Business." It pleads for the sacrifice of American business in China rather than have a controversy with Japan! The other by Dr. Stanley Jones, the missionary statesman, is not dictated by fear, nor by self-intetest. It pleads with the Japanese to substitute friendship towards the Chinese in lieu of devastating war. While American senators talk of nonintervention in world affairs, as though such violation were both possible and just; which simply means "American trade must stay at home." The only argument the Japanese will attend to is being brought to bear by American statesmanship — that is, the creation of new naval and air bases from Alaska to Siberia, and in the Pacific. Apart from armed might, the United States can apply economic pressure upon Japan beyond what any other nation can. Japan has cqnt her best publicists to the diminishing number of cduntries where freedom of speeeh still remains. If we are to understand clearly the import of the issues involved, and of the defence they offer for the present aggression, then there should be more diseussion. If, as one New Zealander who TTas relurned from China states, the Chinese , are not only defending themselves against tremendous odds but are by their heroic defence lessening the possibility of a future attack upon us, then we are vitally concerned in every phase of the present confliet and in the sequence of evento which has brought it to pass. I put 14 que'stions to Mr Suauke, the Japanese journalist who recently visited this Dominion on that sequence. His reply, written in Sydney, wa's surprising for its frankness in some admissions, and equally surprising for its denials in the face of cumulative evidence. If an editor of Mr Suzuke's capabilities and experience cannot make out a good case, then it should be a publie service to expose its weakness. If so-called Japanese goodwill missions are able to limit or shut down legitimate criticism, then the freedom of the Press in democratic countries will suffer further invasion. There has been too much alreadv. — Yours. etc.

Hastings, Dec. 14, 1937.