FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1918
1918 - 1103.PDF
Flight, October 3, 1918. First Aero Weekly in the Worid. Pounder and Editor t STANLEY SPOONER. - A-Ja«rm»l <l«vo(ed to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport. OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. No. S10. (No. 4'J, Vol. X.) OCTOBER 3. 1918. ["Weekly, Price 6d.L Poet Free, 74, Flight and The Aircraft Engineer. Editorial Office: 36, GREAT QUEEN STREET, KINGSWAY, W.C. a. Telegrams: Truditur, Weetcent, London. Telephone: Gerrard 1828. Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free: United Kingdom .. tSs. *d. Abroad 33*. od. These rates are subject to any alteration found necessary under war conditions. CONTENTS. Editorial Comment: ~ The Future of the Herman Colonies How to Deal with Strikes .. .. .. The Essential Characteristics of Aviators A Gotha Biplane Tail The Foklcer Biplane, Type 1) VII (with scale drawings) The Royal Aero Club. Official Notices The Temperament of Aviators The Roll of Honour Airums from the Four Winds B.L.I.C. Aim* :ind Methods Personals The Royal Air Force Aircraft Work at the Front. Official Information Sidt Winds Company Matters 03 oS 09 16 NOTICE.—With this issue is published a'fdouble- page picture " To the Rescue," after an [original drawing by Charles Dixon, R.I. ".Newspapers are an essential part of our war organisation." (Sir Auckland Geddes, Minister of National Service.) [HERE is onfy one main objective in war, which is to impose your will upon the enemy and compel him to do as you wish. Sometimes this object is fully accomplished, and the enemy is compelled to surrender unconditionally. More often one side admits that it has been so far defeated that it is willing to discuss terms of peace which will leave it with its national self-respect impaired, but will admit of reconstruc- tion on a basis which will ultimately result in its return to its former rank among the Powers of the world. What we are fighting for now is to bring Germany to the point at which she will lay down her arms and submit to Allied dictation in the settlement that must follow the cessation of hostili- ties. Germany, on the other hand, knowing now that The Future of the German Colonies. she must be beaten, is fighting on in the hope that the Allies will ultimately consent to meet her at the con- ference table as an equal, and will negotiate a peace which will leave her in a position to later on make anotherand possibly more successful bid forthedomina- tion of the world. We may succeed in our object of forcing an unconditional surrender, but we shall be better advised if we assume for the present that the ultimate terms of peace will fall somewhat short of that and will take the shape defined in President Wilson's fourteen clauses. Therefore it will be some- what in the nature of a compromise between absolute dictation and what we call a " peace by negotiation." Proceeding on that assumption, we have to examine very carefully the outlines of the possible terms we can concede to a beaten Germany, lest by an appa- rently harmless concession in some one direction we should place in her hands a weapon which will enable her in the future to again make a bid for world dominion. Again, assuming that we shall discuss terms with the Hun, we can take it as certain that he will be found very willing, even anxious, to make every concession in Europe if in return we will consent to hand back his colonies. We can see that he means to have them returned if the Allies are so weak and foolish as to fall into the trap. The utterances of German statesmen and official orators emphasise that. Hindenburg, Ludendorff, the Crown Prince, Count Hertling and others have in recent speeches laid stress on Germany's need of colonial expansion. The Cologne Gazette has described the restoration of the colonies as the principal German war aim. The justification is that Germany wants raw materials, which she can only obtain from her own colonies. The clear answer to that is that the total value of the exports from the German African colonies before the war amounted in value to £5,000,000 annually—a very small proportion, indeed, of the total German import of raw materials. Another point in this con- nection is that if Germany needs raw materials she can purchase them in the open markets of the world in the manner that other non-colonial countries obtain them. Clearly, then, the raw materials excuse will not hold water. Why, then, does Germany lay so much stress on the return of the colonies as an essential antecedent to peace ? The answer is con- tained in a speech made last May by one Capt. von Weise, who said : " We need colonies in the Pacific for military and strategic reasons. We need naval bases." • '* F 2
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
