Dec. 9
The debate in the House of Commons on the subject of Germany's colonial claims has at least the merit of producing a definite statement on behalf of the British Govern~ ment, and there ought now to be no mis understandings on the matter, Mr, Malcolm MacDonald has definitely stated that the German claim to the restoration of the colonies which she surrendered in 1918, and which subsequently came under the mandatory system of the League of Nations, is not now an issue in practical polities. It is interesting to trace the higher lights of the subject as it developed after the war, In the early post-war years the colonial question received very little attention in Germany, though the German Colonial Congress met annually, The question was raised by Dr. Stresemann at the Locario Conference, and, in 1926, the Kolonial Reichsarbeitsgemeinshaft passed a resolution urging the German Government to make Germany's entry into the League conditional. upon receiving guarantees for the return of her former Possessions. In 1924, however, Herr Hitler had written in his "Mein Kampf" "The ery for the restoration of the colonies is men' empty talk." There were other passages in his work to the same effect, as for example We finally part with the colonial and trade policy of the period before the War and pass over to the land policy of the future." The words still stand in Herr Hitler's book but. elsewhere things have changed. On November 22, 1935 Der Fuehrer announced "Ger many will never give up her colonial claims. Three months later he said "Colonies are acquired by right of might." In September, 1937, he is reported to have said:
We must have colonies. But they are worth nothing if an enormous armed force is to be maintained to guard them. Our interest is commercial." while on November 22, of the same year his declarations commenced to assume a more insistent note:
We must raise the demand for colonial living-room, We must raise it louder and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.