Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1938. A DEVELOPING DANGER.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 November 1938, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1938. A DEVELOPING DANGER.

ALTHOUGH Herr Hitler has very recently professed to the matter as of secondary importance, demands for the return to Germany of her former colonies are being made more and more insistently. In one of Saturday s cablegrams, a member of the Hamburg local administration (Heii Von Allwoerden) was cpioted as stating at a propaganda meeting: “We do not beg for colonies, but demand them.” Other more or less prominent. Nazis have declared of late that Germany demands the return of the whole of her former colonies.

On the other hand, opinion, not only throughout the British Empire, but in all the countries concerned has hardened against any restoration of colonies to Germany. To some extent this .implies a change of front, but it is a change in every way -warranted by the. new light lately thrown on the character and aims of the Nazi dictatorship. On top of the iact. that, the present German Government, in pursuing its aims of aggression and expansion, in Central Europe, lately went very near to plunging Europe into war, the pogrom against the Jews, in Germany has branded that country as unfit, in its existing’ political organisation at all events, to control any subject race whatever.

Not very long ago, considerable support might have been obtained in the British Empire either for the restoration of colonies to Germany, or for the creation of some sort of international trust, in which Germany would have participated, on an equal footing with other nations, to control African colonies and perhaps other tropical colonies. It is safe to say that any concession of this kind would now be opposed by an overwhelming weight of public opinion in every part of the Empire. It is improbable that that attitude will be modified, even should it appear, as it may, that the German demand for colonies is likely to give rise to a crisis as serious as that which centred recently on Czechoslovakia. In the speech on November 8 in which he complained of world rearmament and attacked British Opposition politicians, Herr Hitler was reported as saying on the subject of colonies: “I have often said that we do not want anything from them except the return of those colonies that were wrenched from us under false pretences. There will be no war about, that. We want nothing apart from that except to trade with them.” Another version of the Fuehrer’s reference to the democracies reads, however: — Germany will not stand like a beggar at anybody’s door. We always negotiate first. If we do not succeed in securing our lawful rights, people should not be surprised if the moment comes when the Nazi State declares: “After we have failed to gain our rights by negotiation, we shall demand our rights, if necessary, by different methods.” A French paper, the “Epoque,” in. drawing attention to the Fuehrer’s declaration that only the colonial question now separates Germany from Great Britain and France, said: — Herr Hitler has made an identical affirmation after each satisfaction that he has secured. His reference to “other methods if German rights are not obtained by negotiation” should open our eyes. It will be entirely in keeping with what has gone before if Germany is presently demanding the return ol her former colonies as belligerently as not long ago she was demanding the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. Presumably, however, it is now recognised even by those who are most anxious to pursue the policy of appeasement-— a policy from which, according to Sir Thomas Inskip, Mr Chamberlain is not to be deterred —that the restoration of colonies to Nazi Germany would be an international crime and also an act of almost incredible folly. The probable treatment of negroes and members of other coloured races by the dictatorship responsible for the horrors inflicted on the Jews'in Germany will not bear contemplation. Account has to be taken in addition of the use Nazi Germany probably would make ol African and other colonies for ends of aggressive militarism. It has been stated, for instance, by Mr Justice Ostler, who has an intimate and familial' acquaintance with the African equitorial territories, that the first thing which Germany would do upon regaining Tanganyika would be to train an army of half a million black's, against whom the handfuls of British people scattered over an immense area north and south of Tanganyika would be helpless. The large cities of South Africa, also, are all within range of aerial attack' from Tanganyika and the harbours and rivers of the territory would provide admirable hiding places for cruisers, submarines and other commerce raiders. New Zealand and Australia have their own concern in the threat to the ocean routes of the Empire that would develop if Germany regained a foothold in Africa.

The similar dangers that would arise if Germany recovered her former colony in New Guinea are too obvious to need emphasising, and'even Western Samoa may. not be without importance"’from the same standpoint. It seems fairly plain that even if dangers have to be faced in resisting demands by Germany for the return of her former colonies, still greater dangers would be incurred in yielding to these demands.