FATE OF GERMAN COLONIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 February 1917, Page 5

FATE OF GERMAN COLONIES.

DISCUSSION IN COMMONS. PEACE AGITATORS DEPRECATE AGGRANDISEMENT. SPIRITED MINISTERIAL REPLIES. Received Feb 21, 8.10 p.in, London, Feb. 20. In the House of Commons, on the third reading of the Consolidated Fund Bill, Mr A. W. H. Ponsonby urged the Government to disclose its policy as to j the future conduct of the war. ''We always," he said, "have no selfish motives, ind we are not seeking to increase our territory by the dismemberment of entmy territory, yet our note to America showed otherwise. Britain had made pi eat sacrifices from purely disinterested motives, and the Government should Hot degrade it by making the war one of aggrandisement and supremacy. The German people were suffering, not the military party. We were destroying German Liberalism which was the only foree tapable of crushing militarism. We entered the war with clean hands, and ought to emerge therefrom empty handtd." Mr C. P. Trevelyan declared that the fate of Constantinople and the German colonies made it a war of conques.t. The Entente note made the Germans fight desperately, to avoid national annihilation. The Entente's dema>l was hot characterised by frankness or charity. Whatever might be our military successes we should still be compelled to negotiate for and not to dictate peace. *ln heaven's name why not try now?" Mr P. Snowden (Laborite) said the longer the war was continued the less likelihood there was fif securing terms satisfactory to either of the combatants. The Allies' terras were monstrous. PUNISHMENT NECESSARY. Mr Bonar Law. in replying, said that Germany was acting on the principle that she must win, not merely by fighting but by tyrannising the civilian populations. Britain was not fighting for .additional territory, or to secure a glorious victory which would reflect credit on her arms, but punishment was necessary in order to make the people responsible for these crimes feel that it did not pay. The wa»' was forced upon the world with calculations as coldblooded as that of a man who moved a piece on a chess-board. WHY VICTORY MUST BE ABSOLUTE. There was no guarantee that, if the ( war ended to-day, with the German military machine unbroken, and the prestige of victory still clinging round it, that the power of Germany wouldjiot be in the same hands and used for the same purposes. If preparations tor *, fight were recommenced, we would have to defend ourselves under worse conditions. Those responsible for the Government were determined thftt the blood which had been shed should not be shed in vain. There must be no second panitwar. He denounced a peace agitation at a time when the greatest neutral nation had recognised that the excesses of our enemies had reached the limit which made civilisation impossible. OPINIONS OP COMMONS. ' Mr W. H. Long, in replying to Mr N. E. Buxton, said his (Mr Long's) speech, as cabled on January 31, was delivered as Colonial Secretary, and he was expressing the opinions of those whom he was bound to represent, namely, the Dominions and the Colonies, besides many people here. Mr Long denied the allegation that his language created a difficulty in America. The cable referred to above stated: Mr Long, speaking at Westminster, said: "We have taken possession of different German colonics in various parts of the world in consequence of the war, I Bpeak with knowledge and reaponsibility, and as representative of the Overseas Dominions, who are the prkle and glory of the Empire to-day, when I say: Let no man think these territories will ever return to German rrile."