[ . . . ]
That organised emigration of the kind we need should, apart from its economic significance, also involve important national considerations, is something that we would only touch on in passing, whilst asking: Must our brothers and compatriots who cross the seas always continue to assimilate themselves to our Anglo-Saxon cousins, thus rapidly losing language and nationality, or must they even, in the down-at-heel overseas communities of those of Latin stock, in many cases allow themselves to be treated with indignity as illegitimate intruders? Does there not arise here, in the national context too, a question of vital importance for the German Reich? If the German Reich Government should prove in the long run unable or unwilling to approach with insight and energy the question of organising and managing our system of emigration, then they would without doubt be doing the gravest harm to the normal development of our national prosperity and our political strength.
But what is meant by the management and organisation of our emigration system? Since it is not possible to prescribe destinations, this demand means no less than the creation, where possible, under the German flag, of conditions in foreign countries for our emigrants which will enable them not only to prosper in economic terms, but also, whilst preserving their language and nationality, to maintain an active national and economic interchange with the mother country. In other words, embarking intelligently and energetically upon a genuine colonial policy is the only effective means of transforming German emigration from an outflow of energies into an inflow of both economic and political energies. [ . . . ]
Various conclusions which are significant from the point of view of cultural history may be drawn from this brief analysis of the essential nature and the development of agrarian colonies. First, that we have here a form of colonisation which is entirely peculiar to modern times. Second, that only a mother country which is able to produce a continuous supply of superfluous labour is qualified to found agrarian colonies; and that therefore it is today only for the Germanic race to engage in this more modern form of colonial creation. Furthermore, the correct method of administration may be said to have been already established through the fortunate fact of Britain’s having applied it first. Since the centre of gravity of these sub-tropical colonies rests entirely upon the white immigrants, they necessarily oust the generally scanty residue of coloured natives. Accorded equality with the white man before the law, albeit not entirely equal where political rights are concerned, they are either scattered over the colony as labourers, or restricted to certain specific areas. A situation which, when it is accompanied by humane aspirations for the intellectual and moral development of the natives, may be said in practice to be entirely well-conceived. Moreover, in these British agrarian colonies the principle obtains of government as little as possible from the homeland, but rather, as soon as the colony has grown strong enough for the task, self-government to the fullest possible degree and on the basis of free political institutions. Any thought of gaining in these colonies any direct sources of income for the mother country would be a gross politico-economic error. On the contrary, the mother country will, particularly in the early stages, have to furnish many subventions. But the mother country will soon receive these again with the richest interest to boot. In this connection we do not have in mind those colonials who from time to time return to the mother country with a handsome fortune, although even this form of increase of the national prosperity is not negligible. In agrarian colonies, however, this is really the exception rather than the rule. Much more important, in any case, is the overall economic relationship between mother country and colony. The exchange of colonial products for the industrial products of the mother country will not only grow at a rapidly rising rate, strengthening the shipping trade of the latter, but, what is so very important in trade relations, a firm and steady interchange will develop between the consumption and sales of either side. Even in conditions of full freedom of trade or perhaps of moderate tariff barriers, both the shipping trade and the industry of other States will strive in vain to enter into successful competition in face of this firm relationship with the mother country. This is demonstrated by the British colonies in numerous kinds of trade statistics. In view of the foregoing, and given our German emigration and our industrial and economic situation, it seems to us that only the ignorant or the wholly prejudiced could deny that agricultural colonies are urgently necessary to the new German Reich.
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