The various pronouncements of Herr Hitler and his supporters on the subject of the return of the former German colonies, and ihe perturbation which is being shown in Africa taken together are sufficient to indicate the very thorny nature of the question. By Article 119 of the Treaty of Versailles Germany renounced in favour of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers all her rights and titles over her overseas possessions. It was probably ill-advised of the victorious Powers to have insisted upon this surrender in the first instance, but the parcelling out of those colonies to various nations under the mandate system served to throw a cloak of dignity over something which was after all the spoliation of the vanquished by the victors. There is plenty of precedent to justify such a course, if the teachings of the past were to prevail atthe conference table, but in face of the attempt to produce a new order in the world it was a mistake, and one which will give an enormous amount of trouble before it is rectified. It does not matter what were the arguments justifying the mandate system at the time of its institution—and there are those who contend that those arguments represent sheer hypocrisy—there can be no doubt that while scme nations regarded the mandated territories as delivered over to them in trust for posterity, others frankly regarded them as permanent additions to their possessions. That view is not accepted by the British Prime Minister, for, when Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1936, he differentiated between colonies and mandated territories in a manner which should permit of no misconception.
"As far as I know," no one has ever asked or Empire should give up apy of its colonies, and, I need hardly say that, if such a demand were made, it could not possibly be entertained for a moment. Mandated territories....are in a somewhat different category, and are only part of the British Empire in what I may call a colloquial sense.
He added that Great Britain did recognize definite obligations to the people inhabiting those territories, and they could not think of surrendering those obligations, or handing over the territories to any other Power, even for the sake of obtaining a general peaceful settlement, unless they were satisfied that the interests of all sections of the populations inhabiting those, territories were fully much interesting comment, and, therefore, a few observations are not out of place. It shows clearly, and succinctly the present state of the hostilities in China from a geographical, and Political point of view, and places in proper relationship various statements and estimates of frequent repetition but of ambiguous purport. The general comment on examining the map was, after a long and costly campaign in Which military casualties have exceeded a million, civilian casualties even higher and material damage running into thousands of millions of dollars, the area in Japanese occupation is so small in relation to the whole of China. This obvious impression has produced reactions from both sides. Expressed in territorial terms, Japanese publicists have emphasized the immensity of the conquest which has added to military possession an area far larger than that of Japan proper. On the other hand, compared with the total area of the country it finds a reflection in the statement of General Chiang Kai-shek, issued after the People's Political Council meeting at Chungking, in which he refers to the fact that China's main base for a war of resistance is in her vast hinterland and not on her coast. Both are correct in the sense in which they are expressed but analysis alters the basis. Geographically, the balance is greatly in favour of China but economically it is overwhelmingly in favour of Japan. If General Chiang predicates continued resistance on the control of vast rural areas which can supply his simple needs until Japan is so overburdened with debt through the maintenance of a large army of occupation that exhaustion halts the military machine it is a comprehensible attitude although it ignores several important factors. One is that China economically is virtually lost to the present administration. Japan controls the coastline of the Asiatic continent from the borders of Indo-
China to Russia with every big port either occupied or controlled by the army or navy. Within the present area of occupation practically every big industrial or commercial centre and nearly all the railways and important waterways are included and the richest territories of China, including the Yangtze Valley, are under Japanese domination leading to the recent statement in the Tokyo "Nichi Nichi" that Japan, once a "have not" country, will become one of the. greatest "have" nations in the world with the present conquest added to the Japan-Manchoukuo-China bloc. These resources will, naturally, be used against China in continuation of -the scheme of conquest. These are material possessions of great value as the map shows and provide the objectives of the campaign which Japan's political plans will develop. What the map does not show and cannot plumb is the extent of the forces of moral and spiritual resistance aroused in China by the invasion of the country which have withstood. the impact of a vastly superior military force although military resistance has failed. There are some wars which are not fought on straight military issues. The Chinese war is a case in point according to the Chinese view and eyen though peace talks are in the air it is not easy to foretell the nature of the end. after the races. The barman put the note in the cash register and went off duty. The proprietor saw the "tenner" and borrowed it to poy the brewer. The brewer paid his tailor, the tailor paid his grocer, the grocer paid the doctor, the doctor—who was staying at the same hotel—was so pleased to get paid that he went down and paid £10 on account of his bill at the hotel, and so the note went back into the till. When the officer came back from the races he received his "tenner" from the batman and tore it in pieces, "Hey there," cried the barman, "don't do that," "Its all right," said the American, "It's counterfeit."
The Showman "WELL, well, well!" said the spokesman of the Society of Dear Old Pals, Jolly Old Pals, "We did have a job, pal, but it's all over now. What a job, eh?"
"What do you mean?" I said.
"Why, getting Mr. Winston Churchill and Lady Astor to make it up."
"You did that?"
"We did, pal! Óf course, it was the devil's own job after shed told him, in the House, not to be rude, and he'd whipped round and made a very sarcastic remark about her good manners, "But we staged a meeting in a pal's house and we slipped Mr. Churchill a rose—the last rose of summer, you might say—and we said Go on, give it to her?"
"And then?"
"Then it was all right, pal. Lady Astor said, "Oh, thanks ever so, she said. "You're ever so nice."
"And Mr. Churchill said, Don't mendi, The pleasure is mine."
"And she said, 'Well, perhaps I was a teeny bit hasty—but you know how these things are!'
"And he said, Do I not! And if it comes to that, perhaps I was a bit on the quick side, too."
"And she said, smiling, Ah, well, easy come, easy go."
"And he said, smiling too, "Well, from. today, let's go along together, as pals, shall us?
"And she said, Tf it's on with you, it's on of fizzy lemonade. And that was that."
"Fine work, pal," I said. "Jolly fine work!"—Showman in the "Herald."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.