158 J.-A. PEMBERTON
tHe ‘economic’ cAse for coloniAl retrocession
The most ‘well-known’ statement of the economic case for the return
of German colonies appeared in an article written by Schacht, who was
described by Chalmers Wright in Population and Peace as Germany’s
‘foremost exponent abroad of his country’s economic requirements,’
that was published in Foreign Affairs on January 7, 1937.^246 Indeed, the
publication of this article, which according to a report emanating from
New York on December 16, 1936, had already received considerable
attention in Germany, probably marked the high-point of the German
economic propaganda concerning colonial revision.^247 In the article,
Schacht maintained that the so-called colonial problem was not a ‘prob-
lem of imperialism’ or ‘a mere problem of prestige,’ but was ‘simply and
solely a problem of economic existence’.^248 Schacht claimed that this
point had in some measure been acknowledged by Hoare in his famous
speech at the League Assembly in September 1935 when he came ‘for-
ward in favor of redistributing the means of access to the world’s raw
material resources,’ although Schacht added that what this meant in con-
crete terms had yet to be revealed.^249
Schacht insisted that Germany’s economic survival was imperilled by
a scarcity of raw materials in a context in which there was ‘no longer
free trade in the world’ and in which Germany was ‘crushed by foreign
debt.’^250 He proposed that in order to ameliorate Germany’s economic
situation, two conditions needed to be met: he stated that first, Germany
must be able to ‘produce raw materials on [colonial] territory under her
own management’ and second, that Germany must be able to exercise
monetary sovereignty over this territory.^251 This proposal was interpreted
in some reports as meaning Germany did not seek ‘absolute sovereignty
over her colonies’ and was ‘willing to administer colonies on the League
(^246) Chalmers Wright, Population and Peace, 49.
(^247) ‘Dr. Schacht on Colonies,’ Straits Times (Singapore), December 17, 1936.
(^248) Hjalmar Schacht, ‘Germany’s Colonial Demands,’ Foreign Affairs 15, no. 2 (1937):
223–34, 234.
(^249) Ibid., 233.
(^250) Ibid., 231.
(^251) Ibid., 233. See also Étienne Dennery, Le Problème des Matiéres Première dans les rela-
tions Internationales (Paris: Institut International de Coopération Intellectuelle, 1939),
- IICI/9/11, UA.