FINAL “NO”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 July 1939, Page 3

FINAL “NO”

FATE OF SOUTHWEST AFRICA

GERMANY’S AMBITIONS CHECKED

MOMENTOUS LAND TRANSACTION

The Union Government’s final “No" to Herr Hitler in respect of his demand for the return of South-West Africa was conveyed indirectly to the Fuehrer when finality was arrived at in one of the biggest land transactions in the history of the territory, the South African Government agreeing to pay £200.000 for cattle ranching ground 500.000 acres in extent, stated the “Sunday Times” of Johannesburg in a recent issue.

The property is in the Okahandja and Windhoek districts and the sellers are the English Liebig Company, whose headquarters arc in London. Great secrecy is being maintained in regard to the circumstances that led to the conclusion of the transaction. Apart from a somewhat cryptic Press statement by the Department of the Prime Minister in Capetown —following representations made by newspapermen —no official explanation could be obtained concerning the reason why the Liebig Company sold their property. It is understood, however, that tlie activities of the Nazi element of the South-West African population, to a great extent, precipitated the move. The political significance of this deal is obvious, according to authoritative opinion. It is clear that the Union Government no longer regards the Reich’s claims for thd return of South-West Africa as serious. It is known that the German Government, represented indirectly by the South-West Land and Settlements Company, was particularly anxious to purchase the Liebig properties. INTENSE RELIEF. The fact that the Union Government has prevented this from taking place has occasioned a tremendous feeling of relief among members of the Union element in the territory. The South-West Land and Settlement Company is financially supported by the Reich. The probability is, according to speculation in official circles, that the Union Lands Department will establish settlement schemes on the properties concerned —and that a large number of Union nationals will be introduced into the territory, ostensibly as settlers, but primarily to counteract Nazidom’s astonishingly progressive peaceful penetration activities. The Department is expected to divide up the Khomas Highlands and Guenthersau , into a large humber of farms —where, possibly, karakul breeding will be encouraged. Meanwhile the reaction of the Union element in the territory is summed up in the following editorial comment which is published by the “Windhoek Advertiser”: — PRESS COMMENT. “The Union Government will in this way provide the necessary proof that it is today pursuing the same policy as was followed by the German Government of 1919. when it encouraged Union farmers to take up land holdings in this country. There are many who hold that the Union, in declaring that it would resist the return of the South-West Africa Company to Germany if necessary by force of arms, has done little more than to make a dramatic gesture. “That attitude towards the Union is wrong. There is probably no Government in the world that is more determined to keep Germany at a distance than the Union. By its action in taking up land in South-West Africa it has given proof that it is prepared to go further than the mere uttering of words. A dispassionate examination of the position should convince even the most confirmed pessimist that there is not the slightest danger of territory go • ing back to Germany. “The Union would rather risk its national existence now than consent to an arrangement whereby German power will be established along herj borders, and she will continue to adopt that attitude no matter what Government may be in power, because the people of the Union generally are fully alive to the fact that an apparently friendly nation today may be a deadly enemy in 50 years’ time.”

The matter is almost certain to be debated fully in' Parliament, when General Kamp’s Lands Department expenditure estimates are considered. SMUTS ATTACKED. A statement ascribed to General Hertzog is being used by a German newspaper, published in Rumania, to substantiate Germany’s colonial demands. Writing in the "Deutsche Tagespost.” Dr Paul Rohrbach, a Berlin journalist, who recently visited East Africa to study the colonial question, also makes a virulent attack on General Smuts, whom he describes as "the inventor of the Mandate swindle.”

"You can ask a hundred Englishmen, and not ten of them will know that the marked cards that the Allies shuffled into the pack when the game for German colonies was being played, was the lying Blue Book on reputed ill-treatment of natives, especially in South-West Africa,” writes Dr Rohr bach.

“The Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, General Hertzog said of this concoction: ‘The unreliability and unworthiness of this document, is sufficient to condemn it to an ignominous burial along with all other similar documents of the war period."