The Conference this week has debated the future destiny of
Germany's lost colonies. It is taken for granted that the colonies will not bo restored to the enemy, who treated the natives with true Prussian brutality. The unofficial reports suggest that an intonational rule, as applied at Tangier, for example, with a conspicuous lack of success, will not be tried, but that the colonies will be assigned to different Sterna as mandatories of the League of Nations. Australia, for example, will assume responsibility for Northern New Guinea, South Africa for the South.West Province, France for the Cameroon, Japan for the Caroline, and so on. General Smuts proposed to apply this plan to the former Turkish lands, but there is something to be said for its extension to the former German colonies. The Allies and tire Dominions would have no reason to fear any future inquiry into their conduct as trustees. The question of Asiatic Turkey has not yet come up, but may well be settled on similar lines. We hope that if, as seems probable, we beoome trustees for Mesopotamia, Great Britain and not India will undertake the administration. The Indian Government have more than enough work on their hands already, and there is no reason to suppose that the surplus population of congested areas in India would emigrate to the Tigris Valley and form an Indian colony there.
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