CONQUEST OF AFRICA

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 July 1936, Page 10

CONQUEST OF AFRICA

REMAKING THE MAP

Italy’s triumph in Ethiopia completes four centuries of a territorial transition that now embraces tlie whole of the once-Dark Continent of Africa with its 12,000,000 square miles and about 150,000,000 inhabitants, writes P. AV. Wilson in the “New York Times.” Omitting the single and comparatively iiiiimporhint exception of Liberia —a Negro Republic on the Atlantic seaboard —the whole of Africa has been brought under, the dominion of white men of European 'origin.

Il Duce won his war despite the League of Nations and despite the. British Empire. The security proniis-, ed by the League has been severely, shaken, and questions are asked. Is it. probable that the present partition of Africa will be permanent? Three col-' onjal Powers—Spain, Portugal, ami Belgium—are minor countries unable of themselves to defend their colonies' against attack by a strong dictatorship. Yet these possessions cover in the aggregate 1,850,000 miles, with 17,500,000 people. The refusal of Italy to submil eitiler to the League supported hy the British Empire or to a peaceful settlement of the Ethiopian question with Prance and Britain outside the League has humiliated Britain and affected her interests in three ways:— l 1. Britain’s route to India through the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, and the Red Sea has become a line o'f Italian communications, naval ami military. 2. The Cape-to-Cairo corridor under •British control is now flanked by a Power strong in Europe as well as in Africa, instead of by an independent Ethiopia, only strong in herself.. Ethiopia adjoins the Sudan, Uganda., and Kenya Colony. 3. Italy’ now controls L'akp Tana, out of which flows an important tributary, of the Blue-Nile, a river essential to the irrigation of the Sudan and Egypt. Italy has iieen credited with a desire to build up a consolidated East Af-i rfcan empire. By conquering Ethio-i pia she has united this country with i the previously separated colonies of! Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. Therej kenm’i ns "Libya on the Mediterranean, and Libya is separated from the Greater Ethiopia by Egypt and the Sudan, now under the influence of Britain.

Italy has lai’gfe forces in Libya, and she has been stirring- up anti-British fe'eTlng in Egypt and Palestine. Is there any reason to suppose that her ambitions extend to a realm which would unite Libya, Egypt, the Sudan? and Palestine with Greater Ethiopia—’ a realm that Would include practically the whole of the regions watered by the Nile and its tributaries as well as the whole western shore of the Red Sea and control of .the Suez Canal. This question is answered, after a" fashion, by Mussolini himself. He says that Italy is now among the “satisfied” Powers, and that she is notharbouring the more ambitious designs, attributed to her. The expense of wad is known to have been large,.,, and! Sanctions have severely restricted Ita-ly’s trade. Also .there is-the prospect of further investment in the development of ‘Ethiubia on which Mussolini indicates a readiness to co-op-crate with other countries. DIVIDED BY SIX. The new map of Africa, surveyed as a whole, is the result of a prolonged colonial expansion, ustially peaceful, sometimes accompanied.by war. Politically the •Tnap. -is divided among six sovereignties. .Two-thfrds of the continent is shared about equally bv prance “ahi! “Britain. The oilier third las fallen to Italy, Belgium, Portugal, and Spain. ;

In Africa, the average density of population is about twelve to I h<square mile, compared with more than forty to the square mile in the United States. The population is unevenly distributed. One-fourth of the continent, being desert, is almost uninhabited. The -Sahara in the north, covering 2.500.000 square miles, is nearly as large as Europe. There is also the Kalahari .Desert in the south. Moreover, the equatorial jungle is sparsely populated. The extent of empire in such a continent "matters less than soil, climate, and resources. We have the broad fact that 'British Africa has a population per square mile which exceed:; the African average, while the other live Powers govern -populations which in every case fall below the average. -A reasonable conclusion is that the .Brit-is’h sphere includes, on the wh01... the best of the territory. France holds the largest slice of Africa — -1,232,732 square miles. Her empire includes the island of Madagm. ehr, Tn the Indian Ocean, and also th. valuable Mediterranean States, Morocco. Algiers, and Tunis. But the hinterland OT this northern and western seaboard embraces much of the Sahara Desert: hence the number of inhabii--r.nls under the French flag is only 38,500,000, or nine per square mile. Britain (with Egypt ) holds 3,925.28 s square miles, in which the population is 05,000,000, or over sixteen to Unsquare mile. Most of I lie British realm lies in the east and south of Africa. It is seen to be almost twice as habitable, on the average, as the French empire. As Tor Italy, the large increase in her empire is shown thus: —

Without Ethiopia, Italian Africa sustained only 2.5 persons per square mile; with Ethiopia, the population i--10.5 to the square mile. Belgium owns the immense equator, ral basin of the C0ng0—920.600 square miles, with 9,584,936 inhabitants or ■about ten to the square mile. This territory includes much jungle, and an important question is what will be its vhlue, and its climate, when the jungle is cleared.

ANGOLA AND MOZAMBIQUE

? Portugal . owns Angola to the west and Mozambique to the east, with one f or two smaller colonies, a total area ,<■ of 796,721- square miles. The popuhs tion is’ 7,023.860, or nine to the square 1 mile. Spain’s possessions—in Morocco and i’ on the North Atlantic seaboard—covi er 140.000 square miles with 900,000 - inhabitants, about 6.5 to the square. ■- mile. 5 . .The evaluation of Africa as <a white 4;m,an’.s. empire -is-subject to emotional fl factors, and especially pride of posI session. Realism, suggests an exceed- - ingly sober estimate. Europe has not . been saved., from depressions by licrj . empires, whether in Africa or any- ■ where else. -The-sta-mlard of life, let, us say, in Portugal with her colonies compares none tbq.favQurably with the Standard in Scandinavia Where sovereignty is confined to the countries themselves. As an outlet. for European population, Africa so far lias been a disappointment. The Whites in Africa —say 3,’000i00O —are only about one in fifty of the people. They are grthered chiefly at the Cape, which is now in-j dependent of European control, and along the Mediterranean seaboard.

Eritrea Somali In nd Sq. Nliles. 45,754 ■ . 194.000 Population. 621,766 1,010,815 Total . 016,754 2,350,24 4 "Ethiopia . 350,000 10,000.000 New total 1.266,754 12,350,241