Gordon Le Sueur

“ If, then, we are to save the next generation from a second great European upheaval, and if we desire to emancipate those native races at present under German control from a system of harsh and selfish exploitation, Germany in Europe must, by the elimination of provinces detached from neighbouring states by previous wars of aggression, be deprived of the power she has so notoriously abused, and if we are to do our obvious duty by the native races, her Colonies must pass to other hands. ”

“ The German cruiser Emden was at Tsingtau on the outbreak of war and got to sea before the blockade.
The Emden had a short but by no means inglorious career. Under her resourceful, gallant and courteous Commander, Von Müller, she cruised the Bay of Bengal and destroyed British shipping to the value of over £1,000,000; she bombarded Madras, causing appreciable damage, and her final exploit of note was to steam boldly into the British port of Penang, disguised by rigging up a dummy extra funnel and flying the Japanese flag, where she sank a Russian cruiser and a French torpedo-boat destroyer. ”

“ At times consciously, at others unconsciously, democratic Governments reflect the mind of the community. In due course, our statesmen, working in concert with the Dominion Governments, will be called upon to decide, in the name of the Empire, how far it is politic, either for strategic or economic purposes, to annex all or part of such German oversea possessions as the Allies in council shall decide to be within the British sphere of influence. ”

“ There was, moreover, no room in German Colonial expansion for individualism, which has proved such a strength to England but was suppressed in Germany. The individual German is not given scope but subordinated to a system.
The truth seems to be that Germany had not got the class of men she required for her scheme of Colonial development—or exploitation seems the better word.
Germany's requirements were lands for growing raw material by native labour, and markets from which she could not be excluded—and she thought she had found them in her Colonies. ”

“ German home methods were applied everywhere with a mixture, as in Zanzibar itself, of a shoddy imitation of Indian life.
The Port of Dar-es-Salaam (the "Haven of Peace") was made the capital, and from here the principal railway runs into the interior.
From the coast the town is hardly visible, the quiet lagoon on which it is built being so shut in by bluffs; while the entrance is between coral reefs, the passage through which is in some places not much over fifty yards. The harbour is small but is perfectly sheltered, and with its fringe of palms makes a striking picture. ”

“ The wave of European trade-expansion surged high upon her barrier of inclusiveness before she awoke to what was to her a new era—the age in which man might demand for man equable treatment in the way of trade, upon a basis in the constitution of which China had no experience and no say. ”

“ The official language was, of course, German, but English was also spoken or at least understood by all European residents in the islands.
In the intercourse with the natives the weird form of speech known as pidgin-English is in universal use throughout the South Seas. It is framed on the same principles as their own languages, and every white man who cannot speak native seems to fall naturally into the use of it. So universal is its use that in German New Guinea the Government officials, to the offence of their kultured minds, had to use it if they wanted the natives to understand them. ”

“ To the travelled man who may have seen something of these Colonies the work carries conviction; for others it has a useful educative value. Knowledge is essential to sound judgment, and although—thanks to the policy of the late Paul Kruger!—a growing interest in our great Empire has permeated all classes in recent years, anything like a comprehensive knowledge of the local conditions and interests of our 12,000,000 miles of Empire is not to be expected until our schools and universities have added to their curriculum systematic instruction in Imperial history and geography. ”

“ It is a matter for congratulation, but not on the statesmanship displayed by British ministers, that the fruit of the German essay at the establishment of a "new Empire" in Southern Africa was no more than the annexation of South West Africa, for it is by no means unthinkable that there was a possibility that in addition to the south-west the Germans might have drawn a wide belt right across the continent from west to east, taking in Bechuanaland, the Transvaal, Tongaland, and that portion of Zululand giving the Transvaal an outlet to the east coast at St Lucia Bay. ”

“ The German nation, from the standpoint of its importance to civilisation, is fully entitled not only to demand a place in the sun, but to aspire to an adequate share in the sovereignty of the world far beyond the limits of its present sphere of influence. ”

“ The German Emperor held very determined ideas on the subject of expansion, but the Chancellor, Bismarck, altered his views only so far as to approve of the founding of Trade Colonies under Imperial Protection.
Bismarck was loth to weaken his military machine by the emigration of men; and the German ideal of colonisation was not, therefore, a policy of settlement but one of commercial exploitation; inasmuch as Germany's aim was to develop home industries in order to keep in employment at home the men who formed the material of her armour. ”

“ The legacy of Spain to the South Seas was the romantic occupation of searching for wrecks bearing cargoes of doubloons and the abandoned booty of pirates, which they seem to have collected for the specific purpose of burying in brass-clamped chests on uninhabited islands for the benefit of the adventurous spirit who might in future years display sufficient enterprise and determination to find his way through the maze which surrounded the prizes. ”

“ Roughly, the German Colonial Empire is five times as big as Germany, with a population of about 14,000,000 natives; and the question of German Colonial policy is a question of native policy.
It is in Germany's interest that the natives should be as numerous as possible, for it is their labour, intelligence, and industry that makes the Colonial Empire useful and necessary to Germany. ”

“ It was an inexpedient policy for the Government to proceed to declaring Protectorates over areas not in actual occupation by other Powers yet coming within their "spheres of influence," and the subterfuge resorted to was the establishment of trade centres by merchants who would claim the protection of the German flag; albeit it could not be seriously argued that the mere foundation of a trading station could constitute territorial acquisition in any part of the world where Germany as a Power had not the least claim. ”

“ Horses do well in many parts of South West Africa; in fact in Namaqualand, along the Orange River, a breed of hardy ponies exists in a semi-wild state. In the drier parts camels are extensively used both by British and German patrols.
The most waterless area near the coast produces a shrub known by the Boers as melk bosch (milk-bush) , which carries a plentiful supply of a milky sap which has been manufactured into a fair quality of rubber; but the difficulty of its collection militates against the prospects of its development into a prosperous industry. ”

“ A translation in the journal of the African Society quotes Hans Zache in "Dressig jahre Deutsch-Ost-Africa" (Thirty years of German East Africa) : "It is a falsely reasoned and falsely proved humanitarianism which seeks to take no cognisance of the education of the native for manual work. Work is provided by the European planters so that the Colony may benefit by increased production, and not least also is it provided for the blessing of the negro."
The blessing is not altogether so apparent to the negro, regarded in conjunction with the fruit of his labour—usually dishonourable stripes. ”

“ From the German point of view this was an ideal "Colony," for there were abundant natural resources and a dense native population whose industry might assure prosperity for their German masters.
In acquiring East Africa the Germans had made a bid for the dominant interest in Central Africa and had by no means lost hope of absorbing the Congo Free State, which by international agreement was open to Free Trade. They went so far indeed as to offer to take the Congo Free State under "protection" when the atrocities of the Congo rubber-collecting trade were the subject of European concern. ”

“ The Colonies cried out for European enterprise and European capital, but they did not want individual settlers.
Under British rule the German has proved a most desirable Colonist, but he has never thriven under his own Colonial administration.
He is by nature extremely assimilative, and in our Colonies he prospers, not only competing with but outstripping the British trader owing to the employment of undercutting methods which do not [Pg 33] so readily occur to the British mind, hampered as it usually is by a sense of fair play. ”

“ A continental nation, surrounded by powerful neighbours, it seemed in her case a suicidal policy to scatter her population abroad; and therefore she exploited her Colonies in such a way as to help her to concentrate her people at home, where she [Pg 28] required men in time of peace for economic development and in time of war for defence—and offence.
As a natural sequence to the responsibility of oversea dominions, it becomes a question of life and death to keep open the oversea commerce protected by a powerful navy ”

“ Having settled down to the exploitation of the territory Germany, with her trade methods, began to oust the once all-dominant trade of Zanzibar.
The latter depended on her trade with India and the mainland, and the Germans instituted a direct service of luxuriously appointed steamers to stop goods from going to Zanzibar and being handled twice. In the way German traders are able to cut prices, it is probable that the saving of one [Pg 99] handling of the goods constituted the profit on them. ”

“ Early in 1884 the German Government, in a dispatch to the British Foreign Office, pointed out that the fact that British sovereignty had not been proclaimed over South West Africa permitted of doubt as to the legal claim of the British Government, as well as to the practical application of the same; the German Government having clearly in mind the avowal of a fixed intention on the part of the British Government not to extend jurisdiction over the coast territory excepting in so far as Walfisch Bay and the islands were concerned. ”

“ History serves to show that to annex territory carrying a considerable homogeneous and hostile population is seldom a success, but since the German Colonies are so sparsely settled—partly because her bureaucratic methods discourage immigration, and partly because she has no difficulty in absorbing her surplus population at home—this argument does not apply here. ”

“ Of the islands in the southern seas where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet, and amongst which Australia forms a fifth continent, some are mere vaults in which repose the relics of ill-advised and vainly attempted ventures, whilst others are fruitful gardens wherein flourish the trees whose sturdy growth testifies to the good seed from which they sprang and the skill of the gardeners who planted them. ”

“ Like the majority of the islands of the South Seas, New Guinea coastal districts are infested with mosquitoes, and malarial fever, which affects Europeans as well as natives, is prevalent. It occurs in more or less severe forms, and occasionally terminates fatally. The eradication of the mosquito pest by petroleum spraying, which has proved such a marked success in the Panama regions, is now being attempted in all malarial-stricken countries, and will, when accomplished, no doubt bring immunity from malaria to New Guinea. ”

“ The society received enthusiastic support, and, indeed, all Germany began to look to Colonies which were to be purely German; and with this enlarged horizon, policy settled down to the acquisition of oversea territory, the ambition being naturally accompanied by an aspiration towards a powerful navy, necessary, ostensibly, to keep communications open. ”

“ Bismarck's policy was directed towards extension, but it was extension of Prussia (or Germany) in Europe and the consolidation of the portions [Pg 19] added to the German Empire. In 1871 he declared "Germany does not want Colonies." He refused to embark upon dazzling adventures in which the risk stirred the imagination, and when an agitation arose in favour of making Germany a sea Power, he confronted it with the words of Frederick the Great: "All far-off acquisitions are a burden to the State." ”