COLONIAL OBLIGATIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 November 1939, Page 7

COLONIAL OBLIGATIONS

CHANGES IN OUR ATTITUDE. "So far as Great Britain is concerned, we have passed through several stages in our attitude toward our overseas possessions,” said Lord Hailey, in a re- ' cent broadcast. “There was a stage early in the 19th century when we viewed them mainly as a field for the monopolistic extension of our own commerce. There followed a stage when, we came under the influence of theories of free trade, and the extension of territory seemed to be of minor importance. so Jong as there was a general recognition of the principle of the open door for trade. It is typical that in 1365 a committee of the House of Commons resolved that 'all further extension of territory or assumption of government would be inexpedient.’ More than once we refused to extend our jurisdiction over areas whose people themselves asked for our protection; there were examples of this in South-West Africa, Togoland, the Cameroon®. New Guinea and Samoa. That stage passed away because foreign Powers were not convinced of the value o? the principle of the open door., and sought to extend their sovereignty overseas in pursuit of closed areas for their own commerce. There was in consequence an answering movement on our own side toward expansion, and we finally took our share in what is known as ’the scramble for Africa? We have now reached a further stage, in which most of us recognise that though the trade of the colonies is by no means negligible in amount, it is 9 ly a small proportion of the total volume of our commerce. I think that we can justly say that with the progress of our own civilisation we have come to think relatively less of the value of the colonies in terms of trade, and more of the obligations which they involve."