THE GERMANS IN SOUTH WEST AFRICA.

Evening Star, Issue 12964, 8 November 1906, Page 3

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH WEST AFRICA.

THE HOTTENTOT REBELLION. [Fbom Our Special Correspondent.] JOHANXESBUEG, September 17. The Hottentot rebellion in : German South-west Africa ia gradually fizzling out, but our Teutonic neighbors have had a very diffi ult contract to carrv out. The arcaf . so vast, and the military Germans so little used to spread themselves quickie over a large stretch of country, that it is no wonder that the Hottentot tribes have been able to elude them from time to time, and then to get to their rear and cut off their communications. The natives h- had an advantage in the fact of thtff .city of guns and ammunition which “has been smuggled across, either from Walfiseh liny or over the Orange Uivor. Probably the German seaport has been responsible also for some of their supplies, but of that there is not any clear knowledge. That guns md ammunition have been taken over the Orange River there seems little doubt and the Hottentots have, for a very considerable time, been used to firearms for shooting game. Were colonial forces employed, men who ha,vo knowledge of the country like those who havo done the fighting in Cape Colony and Natal, the rebellion would probably have licen subdued long ago. but s our neighbors were handicapped by their military system and organisation. Possibly yemr readers may have instituted comparisons in their own minds between the quick, decisive action of the colonial forces in Zulu laud and Natal and the slow, tedious accomplishments of the Germans in Nairuiqualand, l but tho cnees are not similar. We had fighting in Znluland a number of men who knew their work and who were not tied down by military systems. It is quite likely that any military forces —that. is. speaking of military in the sense- of the regular soldier — woiild havo found great difficulty in getting' through Nkandla Forest, near Cetewayo’s grave. Riginanda believed it to be impregnable, and it was deemed such not only by Catewayo himself, but also by the. British forces under Lord Chelmsford. General Stephenson, the Imperial military officer who had a watching commission from the War Office, said tie bush could not be entered and cleared with less than fifteen thousand men, and that to attempt it with less would be fatal. The colonial forces operating in Natal made short work of it, and probably it was this more than anything else that convinced the Zulus of tho futility of men who would slick at nothing. The Gormans are not yet educated into the best methods of dealing with what is really guerrilla fighting with halfsavago tribes. Had tho Hottentots stayed at an|y particular place they would have been exterminated, but it was their extreme mobility, a tendency to melt into nothingness when they were hard pressed, that has made their reconquesl so difficult. They are gradually being worn out, and in the end must get crushed. On looking at the map of German South-west Africa you will see a vast expanse of country with a little rod snot on tho coast about the centre, which is the only British settlement, Walfiseh Bay. So far as area is concerned, tho Germans have plenty of territory, but it is not of much use to them, and the cost of crushing the Hottentot rebellion wonld amount to more than they could soil the whole area for several times over. It is purely a pastoral country, badly watered, and very sterile ; n many places. The rougher domestic animals will do very well there, especially donkeys and goats. Cattle thrive in favorable localities, bat there is. always danger in a vast expanse of country like that of disease spreading. Their herds were decimated bv the rinderpest some years ago, and now they have got tho coast tick disease, which will probably account for a very large proportion of their stock. The country possesses some minerals, copper especially, and they believe they'will yet find gold and diamonds. It may produce a second Band or a second j rPimbeirley, bat there is-nothing found jret

to furnish much food for hope. Several Rond speculators are interested in mineral propositions there, bnt they have not made nthny shekels out of titan. Failing-any mineral- discoveries of importance, the 0 j»ntry will cost-tho German Gpvemmenfc ■fsfi more to keep np .than they are ever ISrJily te see out of it, and .as for forming . cqlony, in our sense of the term, for I.e -sarpl us "ovulation of the' Fatherland, fell an idea is entirely out of the question: It wonld he an idea! , spot for a number of the old Boers, who like to get .hack 'and can enjoy an. ideal Tife that knows - no law except the Bible and tho rifle'” whore a man docs not have to go to officials-every time ho wa-rvts to redress a grievance. They would have done very well there, and in fact a number of them arc scattered about the country, but they wi!l gradually como into conflict with German officialdom, and then there will be trouble, as there is already between those who have trekked further north into Angolalpnd with the Portuguese Government. It is satisfactory to us to know that the Gormans are getting some of the turbulent tribes in order, because it will heln to still the unrest amongst the natives in our own territory, but there is every probability that Namaqualand_ will for many years be a kind of Alsatia.