Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-05-20
THE GENIUS O C0L0NlzlNG

The Germans are oemoanlng the ract that tney a'e
to lose or have lost all Of their colonies. A glance at the
record of Germany as Il colonizcr indicates that 1t was
high time that she abandoned this field. Germany has
never possessed a colony except for her own profit, nor
has she ever administered one except for her own oehe-
fit and in total disregard of the rights of those people
abroad who came under her sway. Germany has pos
sessed colonies for many years. She has had ample OPP
portunity to develop them, but Germany's methods have
invariably been those of. conqueror and exploiter, never
those Of developer. Such a thing as the development
of local self-government in the colonies administered
by her was unthought of. Her preference was to treat
the aboriginal inabitants as slaves, to make out of them
hewers of wood and drawers of water, while her own
commerce and industries enriched her home people at
the expense of these suppressed subjects. and all to the
glory Of the great military machine which constituted
seemingly the real Germany.
In striking contrast is the history Of Great Britain
as a colonizcr. No one who knows anything of history
will maintain for a moment that British colonial history
has been free from dark shadows. Selfishness and greed
and ambition have in too many cases entered into it,
but while those things have existed they have been con-
trary TO the, real spirit of the British people, and as a
rule the British people have resented in more or less
effective ways their manifestation, and as the subject
is viewed in its larger aspects we find that British
colonial history is in reality a history of growth and de-
velopnent. Out OF it sprung the great American re-
public. From it have grown such new and independent
nations as Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and Aus
traia, self-governing in all respects, and attached to the
parent land more by ties OF loyalty than of legality. The
disposition of Great Britain has been to encourage self
government in her colonies. That of Germany has been
to rcpress it and even in the case of those possessions
where full self-government has not been attained, such
IS India. the development is all in that direction, and
the British authorities have for generations been aiding
the local populations of India in the work of organizing
self governing communities as rapidly as these could be
established and maintained under. the peculiar cond1-
lions which prevailed.
Heretofore the handling of colonies has depended
largely on the taste, temperament and morality of the
controlling nation. The colonial power wa responsible
TO no other authority for the manner in which it per-
formed its work. Hereafter the control Of colonies viii
rest upon a different basis. The colonies heretofore pos
scssed by Germany are not to be apportioned among the
ether nations as their own private properly. They are
to exist under a guardianship established both for the
maintenance of order throughout the world and for the
benefit of the local inhabitants themselves, and +un-
doubtedly the League of Nations will arrange that as fast
as that stage of development can be reached these
colonies shall become either independent states or in
tegral parts Of other state with the consent and accord
ing to the desire of their own inhabitants.