AN ECONOMIC PLAYGROUND FOR GERMANY [To the Editor of THE
SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Instead of publicly complaining that the youth of Germany are being organized and that she is rearming too rapidly, would it not be wiser for the British Government to re-open the question of the restoration of Germany's Colonies ? I am entitled to express an opinion on the subject, for I have travelled through all of them.
I have never been partial to the Germans, their aggressive and commanding ways. Indeed, during and just after the War, I lectured in the Motherland, the United States, Alaska and Canada, urging that those Colonies should not be restored. But since those days much water has flowed under the Bridge of History—or the Bridge of Sighs. I look back to 1918, when I visited Dar-es-Salaam, Swakopmund, Windhuk and Dualla in the Camemons, also Lome in Togoland, all former Colonial capitals. The Germans at least kept their towns hygienic. They may sometimes have treated their natives with harslv ness, but they compelled them to work, and work keeps most of us out of mischief.
Moreover, Great Britain, in 1884, actually helped Bismarck (with Gustav Nachtigall and Luederitz) to annex Togoland and German-South Wekt Africa, or Gross Nama Land. As late as the winter of 1918, when I was staying at Government House, Lagos, a delegation of Germans, coming from Dualla were invited to tea as guests of the Government, and the next day the Government of Nigeria sent the Germans by private train over the newly-opened line to Kano, so that they might study Our railway methods in the Hinterland.
Today can we wonder that, conquered but reviving, Germany. is .dreaming of her colonies, beloved and lost? Suppose that we were a vanquished country, with our navy captured, and our ex-colonies administered from Berlin, what should we do with an expanding population and superfluous little souls arriving every year ? I see vast hinterlands in Africa, prac- tically untrodden, of no benefit to anybody. Why not start the Germans afresh oil those innumerable acres which no one is using ? I see 'thousands of islands, in the Pacific barely charted, many- in the Solomon group, and in various French Groups ; in fact, they are dotted all over the Pacific Ocean, islands unused, Of rich virgin soil, wherein copra, palm-nut, tobacco and all tropical harvests can be 'easily produced. Why not appease the discontented German, and give him once more a Place in the sun ? He is a steady worker and a good family man.. "Suppose the League of Nations, Great Britain (ever .a generous foe) and the Mandatory Powers concerned got their heads together, and delivered to the Germans a play- ground in some of the unused parts of the globe. It might help to prevent the former enemy of the Allies, and now I hope Our friend, from planning revenge.
If the Powers could agree to keep Germany busy looking after Islands and Hinterlands, it would gratify her pride, and restore her amour propre, while we in Europe could resume our Metaphorical knitting, and remain at peace with the world.—
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