Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1939. GERMANY’S COLONIAL DEMANDS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 February 1939, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1939. GERMANY’S COLONIAL DEMANDS.

JT is thoroughly in keeping with the tactics of the totalitarian States, that the German demand for colonies, which not long ago was classed by Herr Hitler liimself as of secondary importance, is now being forced increasingly into the forefront, and is being to some extent expanded. According to a British correspondent quoted in one of yesterday’s cablegrams, for example, Germany is showing an inclination to discontinue references to her, “old colonies” and to concentrate on “a comprehensive demand for colonies equally as valuable as those held by other European States.”

Even in Britain there is a certain amount of support for the view that Germany has a moral right to colonies, but claims from that standpoint on behalf of a nation, or at all events a regime, that has discarded morality in international dealings and bases its pretensions solely on the actual or threatened use of force, evidently are not entitled to serious consideration.

There is an overwhelming answer to anything that may be urged in favour of returning colonies to Germany. It would be enough'that no minorities in any part of the world are more brutally oppressed and exploited than those that live under German Nazi rule. Infamy, rather than morality would fitly describe the policy of handing over negroes or members of other coloured races to the tender mercies of the German dictatorship. At the same time, the transfer of African or other colonies to Germany unquestionably would intensify the dangers of world war. Nazi Germany at present is utilising every means open to her of making mischief in the world. Herr Hitler’s denials to the contrary notwithstanding, it is impossible Io doubt that the Nazis would make the most of any opportunity offered them of raising and training native armies in such colonies as Tanganyika.

The plea that Germany is under a serious economic disability in being deprived of colonies is invented. Any disability she suffers in this way is of trifling importance in comparison .with that inflicted deliberately .on the German people under the policy of preferring guns to butter. Nazi Germany has wrecked her trade and cut down the living standards of her people in the hope of building up an irresistible war machine.

Equally in the interests of the native peoples concerned and in those of world peace, the German demand for colonies should be resisted resolutely. Some risk of conflict may be involved in taking that stand, but the risk would be intensified if colonies were handed over to Germany. Any questions of equity that are involved might be settled very easily in a world organised for peace. Under the policy of her present rulers, however, Germany is the principal obstacle to any approach to that happy state of affairs, and nothing could be less calculated to induce those rulers to amend their policy than weak concessions by the nations now holding former German colonies.