17 DECEMBER 1937, Page 21

THE "STOLEN COLONIES " [To the Meer of THE SPECTATOR.]

Stit,—Now that - Germany's Colonial linen is being aired so insistently, and the mandatory regime docketed with every label from indecorum to larceny, we may be pardoned for reviving the . enquiry—what would Germany have done had the boot been on the other leg ?

The answer is partially supplied by a map which a friend of mine saw hanging on a wall in one of the Administrative offices at Banyo or other station of the Kameruns, during the campaign of 1914-15, and which he has kicked himself ever since for not appropriating.

It was nicely printed and coloured, and showed in detail not only the Colonies, but the World, as Germany intended it to be—when she had finished with it. Needless to say, our colonial possessions were no longer shaded pink !

If we are burglars, it is contrary to all . etiquette for other membera of the profession to squeal because we cracked the crib first. Moreover, we did hold the swag in trust, whereas, in the purposeful map above referred to, such refinements as mandates were not even adumbrated.—Yours, &c.,