190 J.-A. PEMBERTON
ISC the scepticism of many of them in regard to those claims was palpa-
ble. Eugene Staley, professor of economics at the University of Chicago,
reported in the Christian Science Monitor that the ‘factual reports sub-
mitted to the Conference appeared to convince many delegates that
much nonsense had been going the rounds in those popular discussions
which run in terms of “haves” and “have-nots” and which couple raw
material supplies with colonial possessions.’^363 Staley stated that Berber’s
intervention at the conference concerning the nature of Germany’s colo-
nial grievance and the questionable ‘scientific accuracy’ of certain state-
ments in a German monograph on the subject of the German attitude
to colonial questions confirmed for him what he had long suspected,
namely, that the argument which coupled raw materials with colonial
possessions was a ‘rationalization and not the central issue,’ the central
issue being for Staley like so many others ‘a feeling of prestige and pride
and inequality.’^364
In addition to there being a general agreement as to what was the
central issue in regard to colonial claims, there was a general agree-
ment that no territorial transfers should be considered under threat of
war.^365 Peaceful change, figures such as Lytton argued, should only be
considered against the background of a more general system of pacifica-
tion: peaceful change should only be given effect against a background
in which states had renounced aggression and where aggression had
been rendered ‘impossible by a collective system of defence’.^366 Clearly
(^363) Eugene Staley, ‘What Price Self-Sufficiency? Not to Alter Boundaries but to Lessen
Their Impact, Defined as One Conclusion of Discussions at the International Peaceful
Change Conference in Paris,’ Christian Science Monitor, September 22, 1937, 5.
(^364) International Studies Conference, Peaceful Change: Procedures, Population, Raw
Materials, Colonies, 470. In stating that the argument that coupled the possession of raw
materials with the possession of colonies was a rationalisation, Eugene Staley was specifi-
cally referring to the following document: K. K. Weigelt, ‘Supply of Colonial Raw Materials
within the framework of the German National Economy,’ in Diedrich Westermann, ed.,
Beiträge zur Detschen Kolonialfrage, preface by F. Berber (Berlin: Deutsches Institut für
Aussenpolitische Forschung, 1937). In the aforementioned document, Germany’s claim to
colonies was justified on economic grounds. Staley stated at the conference in Paris that the
document contained statements that were ‘capable of being challenged for their scientific
accuracy’ (ibid.).
(^365) International Studies Conference, Peaceful Change: Procedures, Population, Raw
Materials, Colonies, 449.
(^366) Ibid., 261.