134 J.-A. PEMBERTON
value, this concluding observation was not troubling. What was trou-
bling was the statement that immediately followed it: that unless changes
are effected peacefully, they ‘will presently take place through a series of
explosions.’^169
In his lecture, Toynbee did not address the issue of the transfer of
non-self-governing territories to Germany, although his implied criti-
cism of British colonial policy in Kenya might be telling in that regard.
Rather, the issue was addressed by Webster who, as should be evi-
dent, disapproved of such a policy and by, albeit briefly, Manning
who employed a term in relation to it that had gained much currency:
‘Danegeld’.^170
Of most interest in relation to the question of transfers of
non-self-governing territories to Germany, was a lecture given by the
LSE’s Lucy Mair. Mair, whose lecture was devoted entirely to the topic,
acknowledged that some commentators invoked the interests of the pop-
ulations of such territories in order to ‘burke discussion of the whole
question’ of colonial transfers. Nonetheless, she was firm in maintaining
that it was not a small consideration that the current colonial and man-
datory regimes at least purported to ‘regard their wellbeing and devel-
opment as a sacred trust’. Accepting that it would be naïve to think that
this obligation would be not be breached in the face of more ‘desira-
ble’ objectives, she argued that its existence at least served as an ‘invita-
tion’ to those individuals genuinely concerned for the welfare of the local
inhabitants in dependences to state their views.^171 In regard to the idea
of placing African lives in the hands of Germany, Mair noted that the
political doctrine now current in Germany assumed the inherent supe-
riority of the ‘Nordic race to any other,’ pointing out that this doctrine
had its ‘parallel’ in the Union of South Africa. Mair clearly regarded the
South African parallel as instructive in regard to the question of what
might be the fate of certain African peoples should they be surrendered
to Germany.^172
(^169) Ibid., 36–8.
(^170) Manning, ‘Some Suggested Conclusions,’ 174, 187.
(^171) Lucy P. Mair, ‘Colonial Policy and Peaceful Change,’ in C. A. W. Manning ed.,
Peaceful Change: An International Problem (New York: Garland Publishing, 1972), 88.
Reprint of the 1937 edition.
(^172) Ibid., 97–98.