Germany and Colonies
The periodical discussion of the problem of colonies for Germany has broken out afresh, but resulted in little more than the restatement of familiar dilemmas. On the merits of Germany's administration of her pre-War colonies opinions differ sharply, but it hardly seems to be appreciated how irrelevant that question really is. What matters is how a Nazi Germany would administer colonies, and on that there is no better basis for con- clusions than mere speculation, for in the days when Germany had colonies there were no Nazis. Now that Italy has increased her colonial empire, by whatever means, it is intelligible that Germans should protest at their exclusion trom territorial overlordship enjoyed by Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, Portugal and Spain in Africa, but it would be intolerable, as Sir Evelyn Wrench has pointed out in a letter in The Times, to transfer African natives to Nazi rule without the fullest guarantees regarding the nature of the administration. The diffi- culty is to see what guarantees could be regarded as satisfactory. The more the future of African dependencies is considered, the stronger the case for some form Of international supervision over both colonies and mandate territories appears. Lord Hailey's report on economic conditions in Africa when it is ready should form the starting-point of new and constructive discussions.
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