COLONIAL CLAIMS

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20735, 20 February 1939, Page 7

COLONIAL CLAIMS

A NEW CONCEPTION ATTITUDE OF BRITAIN SERVICE TO INHABITANTS (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright > LONDON, Feb. 18 Interest attaches to the centenary of the famous Durham Report on Canada—which is now being commemorated —on account of the fact that it marked the birth of a new conception of responsibility in colonial affairs, the contrast of which, with other conceptions, still endures as an important factor underlying the international aspects of the colonial question. The first- point is commented on in a leading article which the Times devotes to the centenary, while the second is brought out in a statement addressed to the Prime Minister, Mr Chamberlain, by a large number of distinguished signatories. Constitutional Freedom The Times says the Durham Report marked the end of the old policy of acquiring colonies simply as a source of profit and it regards the report and the new policies to which it gave rise as “the channel through which the benefits of English liberty and English constitutional freedom have flowed to the Dominions and colonies.” In tlie view of the signatories of the statement sent to the Prime Minister, what is fundamental to the whole question of colonial claims, is tiie purpose for which colonial territories are desired. They say it is undeniable that in the past some colonial territories, although by no means all, have been acquired by the right of conquest or for economic purposes.

Future polloy must be a form of trusteeship, which makes service to the Inhabitants of the territory the only Justifiable moral ground for securing and holding colonial territory.

This conception of colonial policy has been built up during more than a century of effort by statesmen and others drawn lrom all parties in the State. H has received increasing recognition Qurug the past 50 years. Starting from that view, they reach the conclusion that the stipulations for the safeguarding of native interests in the Berlin and Brussels pacts, together with the principles of the League of Nations mandate system constitute the essential elements of an international character for native races in colonial territories. Principles Laid Down In the light of these considerations, and in relation to the question of the transfer of colonial territories they lay down four principles, in accordance with which any transfer should be made while expressing no opinion in advance, favourable or unfavourable, on proposals for the transfer of such territories to different administrations.

The principles are: (i) Respect for the wishes of the inhabitants, to be ascertained as far as possible by an impartial inquiry. (2) Observance of obligations in treaties with native rulers. (3) Acceptance of the system of mandatory trusteeship, the primary object of which should be that of seeking to advance the moral and material conditions of the inhabitants. (4) The prohibition of slavery in all its forms, of economic exploitation of the territory in the interests of a single Power, and of the creation of native armies for purposes outside the territories concerned.

TERRITORY RE-OCCUPIED

ALONG ERITREAN FRONTIER

MOVE BY FRENCH TROOPS

(United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright)

PARIS, Feb. 19

It is reported that French colonial troops have reoccupied the territory along the Eritrean frontier, north-east Africa, ceded by France to Italy under the Rome Agreement of 1935. Italy recently denounced the agreement-

Italy informed France on December 17 that the Franco-Italian agreement of 1935 determining the Franco-Italian frontier in Eritrea and Libya and the status of Italian nationals in Tunis must be regarded as void, since it was never ratified.

The protocol, which was signed in Rome in January, 1935, delimited the frontiers in terms of Article 13 of the Treaty of London, which provided for the compensation of Italy through rectification of colonial frontiers. The treaty was ratified by the French Parliament the following March, but apparently it was not ratified by Italy.