JUMPING-OFF PLACES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 November 1938, Page 9

JUMPING-OFF PLACES

GERMAN OVERSEAS POSSESSIONS. ATTITUDE OF DOMINIONS. “Australia disliked the prospect of Germany having a jumping-off ground so near to Australian shores.” This is one striking passage in a new book by Mr Lloyd George. In this first volume of “Truth About the Peace Treaties,” Mr Lloyd George, who has been bitterly attacked for his share in the treaties, vigorously defends himself and his co-delegates. The writer points out that, at the conclusion pf the war, Australia was alarmed by the existence so near to her of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, which had been in Germany’s possession at the outbreak of the war. New Zealand, he says, took the same view of Germany’s former possessions in Samoa. Views of Dominions Considered. Mr Lloyd George says: “Had Germany made peace early in 1917, neither Britain nor the Dominions would have insisted on continuing the struggle merely to annex the colonies they had conquered. “Personally, I was not anxious’ to add any more millions to the number of square miles we already found much difficulty in garrisoning and still greater difficulty in developing.

“But I knew that the Dominions, with their own forces in conquered territory adjacent to their own territories, were not enamoured of the idea of retaining Germans as next-door neighbours in these domains. “South Africa was utterly opposed to the idea of continuing German proximity and intrigue in South-West Africa, and considered that German East Africa would be a constant menace to Rhodesia and the Dominion and a block to the materialisation of Cecil Rhodes’ dream of a Cape-Cairo route.” Black Empire in Africa. Mr Lloyd George says that Germany rebuffed any sympathetic understanding by then, stating, that, if she were victorious she would found a black Empire in Africa, extending from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, to which Belgium, France and Portugal would contribute.

Such an Empire would have been larger than India and would have included naval bases in both oceans. Germany, he adds, also intended to take parts of Russia and virtually control Belgium.

“No voice was raised in favour of restoring to Germany her colonies, whereas the critics now say that the Versailles Treaty was too harsh to Germany or not harsh enough,” says Mr Lloyd George.