The Hastings Standard Published Daily. FRIDAY, JAN. 15, 1897. LAND GRABBING.

Hastings Standard, Issue 221, 15 January 1897, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily.

FRIDAY, JAN. 15, 1897. LAND GRABBING.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrongs that need resistance. For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

During the past twelve years several of the European nations have been practising land grabbing on a gigantic scale. It was in 1881 that both Germany and France conceived tbe idea of founding colonial Empires and since that period they have assiduously set themselves to the task. In looking about for unclaimed allotments, they discovered that " perfidious Albion " was to be met with in every conceivable corner of the globe Brummagem wans and Britishers were everywhere, but the most exasperating thing to the venturesome French and Germans was the fact that the British had grabbed the choicest pieces of the earth. It is to this more than to anything else that we owe the bitter feeling that has time and again manifested itself in Continental journals. But the continental countries in spite of the restrictions of choice imposed by the presence of Britishers everywhere have done remarkably well in land grabbing. The Times recently furnished an estimate of the area acquired by the colonising powers during the past twelve years, and from the article in question the following figures are taken which shows the e\unt of the acquisition- : Square Miles. Great Britain ... 2,."><">{>,ooo France Germany • • 1,02:1,070 Belgium 1.000,000 Italy .>OO.OOO It will be observed that Germany and France which protect most loudly at British land grabbing performances have done remarkably well. Germany, who.se colonial possessions in Innl were nil, has appropriated 1,000,000 square miles iu Africa, fenced in half of New Guinea, and has thus actually increase! her area six fold. France during the same period of twelve ywuw, litis turner 1 carried the

limits of French Congo up to Lake Chad, absorbed Tonquin and half Siam, and brought Madagascar under the tricolor, thus increasing her area no less than four-fold. France and Germany have expanded at a greater rate than Great Britain, during the past twelve years, but in mere bulk the British Empire is as big as all the possessions of France and Germany put together, and what is of special importance Great Britain's colonial possessions are not the expensive regrets and exasperating disappointments that France and Germany find their colonies to be. Algeria has been a colony for sixty years and she still drains £3,000,000 of gold annually from France. Neither Germany nor France know the art of successful colonisation, but with Great Britain success appears to have attended all her effects. Her colonies have all the pride and vigor of the parent stock, augment her trade enormously and yet cost her scarcely a sixpence in direct expenditure. Huge as the British Empire is to-day, there is no shadow of doubt that its boundaries will be further extended as the years roll oil. Nothing succeeds like success, and who can doubt the wonderful success of British colonisation.