THE ANGRA PEQUENA AFFAIR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7206, 21 March 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE ANGRA PEQUENA AFFAIR.

(Age, March 2 ) At length truth is beginning to emerge from the cloud of diplomatic verbosities as to why Germany has pursued a policy of antagonism to England in the South Pacific. The correspondence contained in the Blue-book which has recently been published on the points at issue between the two countries, according to telegrams received last week, distinctly shows that the apparently hostile position assumed by Prince Bismarck in the annexation of Northern New Guinea and contiguous territory was the result of irritation for which the discourteous official conduct of Lord Graville is mainly responsible. It was the vexatious dehys of the Foreign Minister in replying to categorical and pertinent questions addressed to him by the German Chancellor respecting the claims of Great Britain to csrtain territory on the West African coast that temporarily inspired in him a vindictive spirit. Indeed, when the facts are duly considered, we should be attributing to the Prince a temper more angelic than human had he not, in support of the dignity of the German Empire, which he represented, resented in some decisive fashion the affront cast upon it by the Foreign Office. In 18S0 the Rhenish Missionary Society, whose operations were carried on in Damaraland, which did not belong to England, applied for British protection. Lord Granville in effect replied that while the Cape Government would afford all the protection in ita power, the location of the Society was beyond the sphere of our jurisdiction, and England must decline to hold herself responsible for events occurring outside the strict limits of her own dominions in Africa. This communication was followed a month afterwards by Lord Kimberley, then Secretary for the Colonies, declining on behalf of the Downing-Btreet authorities to support any plans for extending British authority over Damara or Namaqua Land ; Angra Pequena being, let it be observed, situated in the latter rpgion. Negotiations on the subject were suspended until 1882, when Prince Bismarck asked Lord Granville, in terms of undoubted courtesy, if England really possessed any territorial rights in the quarter referred to, his object obviously being, in case England was legal proprietor of Namaqualand, to bespeak her protection for a German factory and settlement which had been established in the country. There iB prima fade evidence that up to that time the German Government had no desire whatever to annex land either in Africa or in New Guinea. Application for British guardiausbip on behalf of the German factory and settlement was renewed in 18S3 by the German charge d'affaires in London, and in three weeks subsequently Lord Granvillo refused, at the same time asking for further information in reference to German proposals. Although the desired particulars _ were immediately supplied to the Foreign Office, nine monthß elapsed without the communications of Germany receiving the slightest notice, and orders were sent to the charge d'affaires to prea3 for a direct answer to the question as to whether England had any proprietary rights whatever in Angra Pequona. Then, with studied caution, Lord Granville stated that although the sovereignty of her Majesty had not been proclaimed along the whole coaßt, he would treat the exercise of jurisdiction in the section of country occupied by German subjects by any foreign Power as an encroachment on legitimate British rights. When it is remembered that Lord Kimborley, only a Bhort time previously, had emphatically declared that the British Government would steadfastly resist all invitations they might receive to annex territory in the direction indicated by Prince Bismarck, the dispatch of Lord Granville to the German Chancellor must be severely censured as a gross breaoh, not only of diplomatic courtesy, but of common decsney. Indeed, Count Munster did not fail, at the instance of his Government, to point out in an incisive manner the utter incompatibility of the statements made by Lord Granville as to British rights nonh of the Orange River. Once more the Foreign Office took refuge in its accustomed policy of vacillation and delay. Is it surprising that the patience of Prince Bismarck should now be completely exhausted ? After again waiting in vain four months more for Lord Granville's answer, he instructed the German consul at Cape Town to declare the settlements requiring protection under the mjis of the German Empire. Of this step Lord Granville was duly apprised; and although the German ambassador recalled to his recollection that his note, dated so many months back, still remained unanswered, apologies were offered, but no reply was forthcoming. .But the worst is yet to be told, and the discovery to be presently mentioned was calculated to astound a nature much more phlegmatic than Prince Bismarck's. While the English Foreign Office was treating the honourable and bona fide communications of the Chancellor with insulting neglect, it actually transpired that Lord Derby had been secretly endeavouring to effect arrangements with the Cape Government for annexing the ooast far beyond the boundary specified by Lord Kimborley, and up as far as Wahlfisch Bay, Angra Pequeua being included. To this mean and deceitful project the Cape Government assented. The German ambassador, learning what was taking place, protested against conduct marked by such unqualified duplicity, and repudiated the negotiations. When Lord Derby found that his underhand policy was detected, be suddenly telegraphed to the Cape Government to suspend its decision. The upshot of the whole was that the Foreign and Colonial Ministers of the Queen, who at first declined to annex Angra Pequena and then boasted of their "legitimate rights " to that and the adjacent territory, were compelled, like thieves caught in the act of purloining, to relinquish their dishonest purpose, oud meokly resoguisa the proteo-

torate of Germany over a r<sgiw* which might have fallen like a ripe apple into iheir own hands had they but resorted to an oralnarily respectful and straightforward policy in their dealings with the Chancellor. By way of reprisals, Bismarck annexed a yet larger slice of the African coast than .he bad originally contemplated, and Lord Granville, whose starched official frills of three years before had meanwhile entirely collapsed, was reduced to the abject necessity of supplicating German protection for British subjects. The Prince next proceeded to repay Lord Derby in his own coin by suddenly annexing the northern coast of New Guinea. The synopsis we have given of the Chancellor's proceedings, and especially when these are interpreted in ,the light of bis recent speeches in the Reichstag on his relation with England, must oonvince all impartial persons that it is not hatred of England by which he ia animated, but bitter contempt for the British Ministry by whom the dignity of his country has been outraged, and who have just obtained a reprieve of six months from a House of Commons that would certainly have ordered them to immediate execution but for the unworthy and selfish dread of a dissolution and general election.