210 J.-A. PEMBERTON
of a conference to consider German colonial claims. The same authors
insisted that in regard to the ‘administration of non-self-governing ter-
ritories and in the matter of access to raw materials[,] “the European
Powers should be placed upon a footing of approximate equality”’. The
authors of this letter were Toynbee, Murray, Vernon Bartlett and Noel
Edward Noel-Buxton, 1st Baron Noel-Buxton. Doubtless conscious of
the controversy that their proposal would excite, the letter’s signatories
took care to insist that the first condition of any settlement of the colo-
nial question must be the following: that the ‘natives of the non-self-gov-
erning territories (both those which are and those which are not at
present under Mandate) should not be sacrificed in any way for the sake
of improving the relations between European Powers.’^436
It was in view of this consideration that the letter went on to state
that if one or more of Germany’s former colonies were to be returned
to Germany, it should be in the form of mandated territories, such that
Germany would not exercise ‘unrestricted sovereignty’ over any territory
ceded to it. Equally, however, the letter suggested that ‘the European
Powers which possess Crown Colonies should consent to place at least
an equivalent portion of those Crown Colonies under the Mandatory
régime’ in order that Germany would not be ‘the only Power that is
being asked to administer under Mandate colonial territories over which
she has once exercised unrestricted sovereignty.’^437 In relation to the
matter of ‘access to such legitimate sources of supply and markets that
these territories might offer,’ the letter stated that the ‘European Powers
should be placed upon a footing of approximate equality with one
another.’^438 The authors of the letter claimed that they saw in their pro-
posal the ‘possibility of a colonial settlement which might prove equally
favorable to the well-being of the native peoples and to the peace and
prosperity of Europe.’^439
(^436) Vernon Bartlett, Gilbert Murray, Lord Noel-Buxton and Arnold J. Toynbee, letter
to the editor, Times, October 7, 1937. See also Wood, Peaceful Change and the Colonial
Problem, 109.
(^437) Times, October 7, 1937. See also Wood, Peaceful Change and the Colonial Problem,
109n.
(^438) Ibid.
(^439) Ibid.