EAST AFRICA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16665, 25 September 1914, Page 4

EAST AFRICA.

BRITISH AND GERMAN POSSESSIONS.

" GERMANY'S COLONIAL JEWEL.'

" It can bo assumed that the economic relations between German East Africa and the two British protectorates will become closer and closer, and so, in peaceful competition, Germany and England will work together for the "expansion of civilisation in East Africa."

This is the concluding sentence of a recent book written on British and German East Africa by Dr H. Brode., who was for many years in charge ol the German Consulates at Zanzibar and Mombasa. But the author reckoned without his Emperor. British and' German interests in East Africa are now in conflict.

There arc—or were wp till the outbreak of war—about a hundred German subjects living in British East Afjrioa, and a dozen or so in UgandaOver half a dozen large German companies were doing business, and some smaller traders and farmers had their homes there. German East Africa had a. total annual trade ol' about. £2,500,000, imports representing £1,750,000 and exports £750,000. British East Africa's trade, including that of Uganda, amounts to about £1,600,000, imports representing £850,000 and exports £750,000. It may be stated that the German colony is fair more developed than the two British East African protectorates. " It would be vanity to attribute our better successes to better colonial methods adopted by us," says Dr Brode. " A good' deal of it we even owe to our neighbours, who by their railway have opened te cultivation some of the best parts of our colony. But the principal point is that in the division of East Africa we have apparently got hold of the better territory." As a matter of fact, British East Africa is better known to Germans than the German colony is to English people. Mombasa has to be passed by residents of the German colony on their way to and from Europe, whilst German East Africa is out of the way of those who have their homes in British East Africa or Uganda. Many German officers had to cross right through British East Africa on the way to their stations. »

" Apart from this," says the writer, ,: the German interest in their neighbours is keener than vice versa. . . . The reason is obvious. The English are a nation of long colonial experience. For experiments in a new colony easily find models iu one <f their old possessions; they do not need to go to school to such a colonial parvenu as their German neighbour appears to them to be. But there is also another sido to the question. For us East Africa was the jewel of all our colonial possessions, whilst in the huge British colonial Empire their East African protectorates were looked upon as stepchildren. The general interest in them was exhausted for somo time, by the construction of the Uganda railway, which had swallowed enormous sums, and after its completion there was not much inclination to make further sacrifices for their development. hi on the contrary, the colonial interest which awoke by-and-by was mostly concentrated on the East African possession. So everything which has been done in Gorman East Africa is of a solid character; in British East Africa one notices everywhere the tendency to save money. One has only to compare the two capitals, Daressalam and Mombasa. At the one are smart villas, with all home comforts; at the other, ugly bungalows of corrugated iron." The German sphere in East Africa has a coastline of *» bout 620 miles, and its estimated area is 384,000 square miles. Tlic native population is about 10,000.000, consisting mostly of tribes of mixed Bantu race; the European population is about 4000, including nearly 8000 Germans. The chief exports are rubber, copra, ivory, coffee, and sisal hemp, whilst cacao, vanilla, tobacco, sugar, tea and cotton are also cultivated. In addition, there are about 650,000 head of cattle and 5,000,000 sheep and goats. Minerals known to exist within the protectorate are coal, iron, lead, copper, mica and salt, whilst gold has aJso been observed and agates, topaz, moonstones, tourmalin, garnets, and quartz crystals are found. Wide, well-kept roads run all through the colony. The military and police force consists of about 350 Germans and 4500 natives.

British East Africa consists of t\ large area on the mainland (including the East Africa Protectorate and the Uganda Protectorate), under tho immediate control of the Colonial Office, together with the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, governed through . their Arab Sultan by the Foreign Office.

The East African Protectorate lias an area of about 200,000 square, miles, and an estimated population c f 4,100,000, including 25,000 Asiatics and 2500 Europeans and Eurasians. There are 1850 police under some 40 European officers and non-commis-sioned officers. In the Uganda Protectorate, comprising an area of 117.681 square miles, and having, a native population of 3,500,000 and_ a European population of about 450, there is a battalion of the King's African Rifles, 800 rank and file, and 975 armed constabulary, under a British commandant and British officers. There is also a volunteer reserve of over 60 efficient Europeans. The Nyassaland Protectorate—a portion of British Central Africa, lying round the shores of Lake Nyassa, and extending nearly to the banks of the Zambesi—has an area of 39,315 square miles, and a population of 1,022,000. The European inhabitants number 758, and there are 156 Indians there. The chief towns are Blantvre. Zomba (headquarters of the Government), Fort Johnston (the principal port on Lake Nyassa, and marine transport depot), and Kotakota, on the west coast of the lake. Almost the entire trade is done with the United kingdom. The armed forces consist of 100 Sikhs and the Ist Battalion* of the King's African Rifles.