THE GERMAN PIONEER.

Grey River Argus, 6 November 1911, Page 8

THE GERMAN PIONEER.

The Germans do nai- colonise sue cessfully under their own flag 1 -, but there is no doubt- that, as pioneer com■mercial a^-onts they ai - e very formidable peoiple. Mr Francig McCullag^h, one of ■ the correspondents who were expelled ' from Agadir, gives an inteiresting- litrlc sdectch of the Germans he found there .busilj' engaged in extending; Genman influence. The most important member of the German community was Heir Herman Wilberg, a representative of a' Gorman firm, who was in close touch with ;tho Foreign Office This man knew about the ' despatch >of the -German warship when no ofyz outside >a handful of people dreamed of such a thing happening, and he hastened southwards from Mog-adca- an receipt oi' instiruccioiiiv Jroni his Goivernment«. Herr Wilberg- is a masterful man, a-nd as Mr iMcCullagh watched him ride out of the oily ioarlesslyj without an €3cort, past the bowing Khaifa and his DadJy-mountcd cscoirr a be could not help thinking he was the. embodiment of German efficiency. "Booted and i purred and a-igid as a cui.ra'Ssier in hiy saddle, he was v good representative of the heavdly armed and masterful Teuton, who, if Europe allows him a foothold an Hhis coast, will have little difficulty in riding down the mysterious but inefficient Moor." 'Th.c German pioneers at Affadif are a .new and formidable type. They arc not picturesque in tho old style, hut they are exceedingly well equipped. They have all served in the army. They are all well-educated a«d have a thorough knowledge of Moroccan affairs, of life. Ono of. thorn, a doctor of science, could take ia professorship a* a German .University, but he could also lead successfully, an exploring expedition into ijhe Sahara. 'Indeed, no'n-e of the Agadir Germans beau* 'any. resemblancCj physical or mental, to the -absent-minded philosopher ■ of. -the comic papers. They are all of them large, -strong-limbed, fasir-haircd, with faces deeply scarred/ by student duels. Thcj' are loud- voiced, jovial, fond of horges. At night they shake the dead old to'w-n into tjemporairy animation with their .healthy German ballads. When not singing" they are telling yarns about the wilder parts of Africa about the Congo, the Cameroon's, mangrove swamps,; massLonariea and elephants. To a Britisher accustomed to hear only British pioneers and frontiersmen and other Kiplingesque persona,ges taMoing in ths way, it is at first a to And Germans indulging in such language: It seems like the infringement of a pat'cyat." Theso men know the Agadir hintierla;nd thoroughly, and they are .convinccid that it has a 'great future as an argricultural and mining country. So much/preparation forthe dewelapme,nt of this part oi Morocco suggests 'tha 1 * Germany madie up her mind from ijlie first that commeroially, at any, rate, this region was going to be •German.