New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-07
Sir William Holman, Prime Minister of
New South Wales, Speaking for Masses of
Australia, Declares New Guinea Must
Be Kept Out of German Hands
By FRANK H. SIMONDS
Author of "The World War" "They Shall Not Pass"

than the Australian case, because, after all,
the Germans held no territory on the
mainland of Australia and were separated
by considerable breadth of water from
the Australian coast. On the other hand,
the frontiers of the Union of South Africa
and of German Southwest Africa march
for many hundreds of miles. General
SHUTS in London-next to Botha the most
conspicuous of South Africans, and like
Botha a Boer-has very emphatically as
serted that under no circumstances would
the South Africans consent to the resto-
ration of German power in South Africa,
using language quite as forcible in de-
scribing reasons quite as cogent as those
Of Sir William Holman quoted above.
Now, there is not the smallest possibil-
ity, Of course, that Great Britain would
use her fleets or her armies to coerce
Australia or to coerce South Africa to
restore this territory. To suppose that
the British would fight the Australians
and the South Africans, who have con-
tributed very much to the British cause
in the present war, to reestablish Germany
in her Pacific and South African colonies
is just as absurd as to suppose that Great
Britain would go TO war with Japan to
compel the restoration to Germany of
Kiao-chau. Australia, New Zealand and
South Africa are self governing com
monwealths. Their decision in the matter
of these German colonies Is final and II
has been made.
The Problem Of the Ksmerun
There remains now the question of three
other German colonies-Togo, which is in
significant in size and value; the Kamerun
and German East Africa. Now, so far as
the Kamerun is concerned the situation
is this: 1t was completely conquered in
the first year of the war, but its conquest
was not the work Of the English soldiers
alone. Oh the contrary, the greater part
of the work was done by French colonials
of the adjoining French colony Of Equa-
torial Africa and by Belgians from the
Belgian Congo. At the present time the
British occupy only a very small area Of
the Kamerun, adjoining the eastern from
tier of British Nigeria. All the rest is in
French hands. Consequently it lies out
side the power of the British to restore
/ the Kamerun. Moreover, almost half of
/ the Kamerun belonged TO France up to
/ 1911. when it was taken from France
under the threat of war during the Agadr
crisis. The German claim to this terri
tory rests on an action of sheer blackmail
six years ago.
Turning to German East Africa, the
situation is this The troops used in the
conquest of this German colony, which Is
not vet quite completed, have been in the
main drawn from South Africa, and they
have been commanded by General SHUTS.
German East Africa also joins the terri
tory of the Union of South Africa, and
the voice of the Union Of South Africa in
the matter Of German East Africa Is
bound to be decisive, because the main
work has been done by South Africa. Once
more we have the emphatic statement of
General SHUTS that the Union OF South
Africa will never consent to the restora-
ton of German rule in this colony. In
addition. both Belgian and Portuguese
troops have shared in this campaign and
both Belgium and Portugal are bound per
manently to oppose its restoration, be-
cause while the Germans occupied the
Kamerun and German East Africa, as
well as German Southwest Africa, their
policy and their purpose were disclosed IN
many documents. This purpose and
policy we're to absorb the Belgian Congo,
the Portuguese territories of Angola and
Mozambique, and create German Mittel-
afrika. Precisely as South Africans are
resolved not to endure a return of the
Germans because the Germans had plotted
to destroy South African independence
and seize South Africa, they, az well as
the Portuguese, the Belgians and the
French. are determined that German rule
shall not be restored in colonies which
would inevitably become once more the
basis of intrigue and the foundation of
new German plan to create that 'Mittel-
afrika temporarily arrested by the events
of the present war.
Germsnys African Dream
At the moment when the World War
came Germany had far-fung circle of
colonies. But it was in Africa that the
German had laid the foundations of real
empire, although even here his possessions
seemed TO him all too limited and circum-
scribed. A million square miles in area,
Togo. Kamerun, German East and Ger
man Southwest Africa were divided from
each other, cut off from the fertile regions
of the Congo Valley, walled in by British
and French colonies vastly more desirable,
or strangled by Portuguese and Belgian
territories whose integrity was guaranteed
Oh La