My Life

My Life - Oswald MosleyHowever, for 'Germany to live in peace and to pursue its national objective of thewealth and happiness of its own people' it was necessary for it 'to possess an adequatesupply of raw materials and full outlet for expanding population'. 'The onlyfundamental question outstanding between Germany and Britain is the problem of theGerman colonies now held by Britain under mandate from the League of Nations. Onprinciple, the writer would not concede to any nation one inch of British territory,' but'the German colonies have been to Britain little but a burden and an expense' and'could be to Germany an outlet and an opportunity': I would therefore have returnedthem as part of a general peace settlement.This section of the argument concluded: 'The return of the colonies together with anyadditional facilities for access to raw materials, easily accorded in a world faced witha glut rather than a poverty problem in raw material production, could firmly securethe postulate of national socialist policy in the shape of an economic basis to Germannational life. . . . Such measures would not only remove all possible cause of frictionbetween Britain and Germany, but could also eliminate the possibility of Germanexplosion in Europe by the provision of means for her peaceful expansion.'Let it not for one moment be deduced from this section of the plan and part of theargument that I was ever in favour of the permanent maintenance of the old colonialsystem, for long before any suggestion of the present black troubles I proposedpolicies to bring that system to an end, and even presented a choice of methods for thepurpose. I was never a racialist because I was never in favour of the domination ofone people by another. To look after your own people no more denotes hostility toother peoples than to look after your own family.It may be objected that the introduction of the Germans in any form and for anypurpose to Africa would inevitably have led to the permanent subjection of black towhite. On the contrary, the Germans of that period had not the least interest inanything of the kind. All they were concerned with was access to raw materialsadequate to afford an economic basis to their autarchic economy, and this was quitecompatible with the evolution in Africa of a different system to the old colonialism.The real, vital interest of the Germans was union with their own people in Europe.They were among the nations least likely to oppose an orderly transition to a newsystem in Africa which gave a fair deal to both white and black, but they might haveshared my opinion that it should be a carefully planned and implemented building of anew system within a reasonable period of time, and not a precipitate retreat throughfatigue and inertia, with the appearance of a bully turned weakling, leaving chaosbehind his rout.I went on to deal with the security of France, always a major consideration of mypolitical thinking, and argued that 'the best guarantee of French security is thesatisfaction of Germany' by the measures I had suggested. Hitler had enquired 'why heshould seek to possess French territory with a population of 270 to the kilometrewhile he still was faced with at least the remnants of the unemployment problem inGermany', and this was in accord with the whole German attitude. I concluded thissection of the argument as follows: 'The only policy which can logically produceanother explosion on the western frontiers of Germany is the denial of expansion; notonly on her eastern frontiers but in her limited though necessary and natural colonialambitions. Yet financial democratic policy could not be more perfectly designed to322 of 424