LLOYD GEORGE LIFTS CURTAIN ON GERMAN COLONIAL AIMS

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 29, 30 December 1938, Page 12

LLOYD GEORGE LIFTS CURTAIN ON GERMAN COLONIAL AIMS

They deecive themselves, it seems, who imagine the Munich Agreement was the preInde to peace. Germany's plan includes the demand for the return of her colonies. Present forecast is that a new crisis hinging on this demand will develop early in 1939.

YoOs8 N these conditions, the pub- } lication by ‘Lloyd George of his book, ‘* The. Truth. About » ‘the Peace Treaties’’ is particularly timely.. This is;a massive work. It eovers the whole gainut. of ‘the. :multitudmous factors covered ‘at the Peace Conference in 1919. In the present cireumstances, the most interesting Section‘is that relating to Germany’s eolonies. It is now recognised by the best observers that Hitler, in essence, is but the pawn of the same class -the Prussian landed gentry-who backed the Kaiger. Their old military objectives are being pursued under a new front. Recognising that modern Germany is ensiaved by the.same old political force that ruled them "witer the Kaiser, a clear-cut view is available of- their colonial objectives. Lloyd. George summarises their old-time views

cogently and effectively. "German ministers and publicists advertised: their colonial aspirations with great frankness during theprogress of the war. Tlieir ambi-, tion was to found a black Empire in Africa, extending across that continent from the Atlantic. to. the Indian Ocean. As one of the most reputable of the German writers put it, in a document jssued during the war: "We are fighting . ....indirectly in order ta get back our Colo--nial territory and to increase it. We are fighting for an Empire. in Central Africa." ; France’s Share "Portugal and Belgium," says Lloyd George, "were, in the main, . the contributors to this enlarged Empire,. but France also. was .to yield her share. Belgium was to be held as a pawn in game. The Congo was to be the price of the evacuation. of Belgium. The price of the withdrawal of German armies from French soil was to be the surrender of French colonies in Central Africa. Britain was to be told. that unless she restored German East Africa and perhaps South-West Africa, Germany wauld retain. her hold on Belgium and the northern provinces. of France. As one of thsir writers. put it: "Tf the English are confronted with the choice of either allowing us to have these colonies or of seeing us establish a direct or indirect dominion over Belgium, it will come easier to them to let us have the Colonial Empire." "That was the peace strategy of the German leaders." . But the aspect of German ambitions in this continent which alarmed Eritain, the Dominions.and India, was the avowed. purpose of Germany’s policy to use this huge African territory, which she. contemplated demanding as the price of peace, for strategic purposes, inimical-and in certain’ contingencies possibly fatal-to the. inter--ests of both the British and ‘the "French Empires in tropical ‘Africa and in the Antipodes. Pressure Fi rom Africa

The * Gevinan:: viewpoint, bluntly by.-Emil Zimmerman, was that the policy both of Australia and of India might be very strongly influenced by pressure from German Mittel- ° and British policy, too, since England has as strong an. interest in. unimpeded commercial : intercourse with "India and Australia‘ as. India and: Australia have in: unimpeded : inter‘course with England... To allow Germany to bestrliis Africa’ today, to cut British land power in two and dominate the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, would be suicidal, not. only to the: British Empire, but to .world peace. °Tt would provide Germany with the pedestal she _ Fequires for world ‘dominance. ~ . With this key-nots. ta her -as- ', pirations, as revealed from the pages of the past, the importance of the German demand for the return of her colonies can he accurately assessed. "Lloyd George wields ‘a virile and effective pen. Among the best portions of his book ‘are those chapters devoted to the personalities ‘that moulded the. peace. Wilson’s presence at the Peace Gexference, he states, ig now re

cognised to have been a major blunder from all points of view. He was unsuited. for diplomatic contact; his was the, schoolmaster’s .. mind, accustomed to ¢ -ictate, unable to compromise. Hater of Germany Of Poincare, the French President of the time, and hater of everything German, Lloyd George says: "He is the true creator of modern Germany with its great and growing arma-. ments, and should this end in another conflict. the: catastrophe will have been. engineered by Poincare." His dead hand lies heavy on Europe today." . Lord Esher, in his recently puhlished ‘letters, went on. record as saying that the Peace: Conference, designed to establish a permanent~. peace after the war to end war, em-: bodies provisions which made Jin-.. evitable an even greater war in the future, The outlook is not bright, but it’ is better to face the aoe and know: what lies ahead.-A.J. "The Truth About the Peace Treaties." David -Lioyd George. Victor Gollancz, London. Our copy from the publishers.