FORMER GERMAN COLONIES

Southland Times, Issue 23726, 26 January 1939, Page 6

FORMER GERMAN COLONIES

MANDATES EXPLAINED PRE-WAR STANDING AS COLONIAL POWER The former German colonies are ruled under 'mandate, says a writer in The Daily Mail. What is a mandate? It is an order from the League of Nations entrusting a State with the governance of another people-—in other words, the post-war alternative to the outright annexation of colonies. The award of the mandates was decided after the war by the Supreme Council of the Allies, and the Mandatory Powers —that is, those administering the territories —have to give an account of their stewardship to the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League. . The mandatory Power is a trustee rather than a proprietor. Its authority —exercised on behalf of the League is conferred solely with a view to securing the well-being of the inhabitants of the territory concerned.. The inhabitants of a mandated territory do not automatically l become subjects of the country holding the mandate. They are given diplomatic protection abroad, and may become naturalized subjects. Otherwise they are simply persons protected under mandate. THIRD COLONIAL POWER What was Germany’s former standing as a colonial Power? Where were her colonies? What did they produce? How have they developed under mandatory rule? Now that the colonial issue is likely to come to the forefront, these questions are being everywhere asked. In the’ next few months the destiny of the former German territories scattered over Africa, Australasia, tha South Sea Islands, and the Far East will occupy the attention of statesmen. Before the war Germany ranked third among the colonial Powers. The three great nations of Western Europe exercised dominion over these areas: Great Britain 11,460,000 square miles. France 4,223,000 square miles. Germany 1,134,000 square miles. Today there are no German colonies. They have been split up among the British Empire, France, Belgium, and Japan. Most of the German territories were acquired around 1884 and 1885. That was at the height of the international race for colonies. In 1914, while the German colonies, were peopled by 15,000,000 natives, .the German population itself in . them was only 18,500. Let us take a look at these vast former German possessions. GERMAN EAST AFRICA Here, in tfyp language . of ' estate agents; is a choice property now known as Tanganyika, situate between Kenya on the north and Portuguese East Africa on the south. Held under British mandate. Formerly comprising 384,000 square miles, cessions of land to Belgium and Portugal have reduced it to 360,000 square miles. Population in 1914 was 7,500,000, including 5000 Europeans and 13,000 Asiatics. Today the Europeans have increased to 9000, Asiatics to 32,000. “German East” was not a profitable investment. Expenditure in 1912 was £1,800,000, with only £624,000 coming back to the imperial coffers. Now the wealth of the country has multiplied. Last year on a Budget there was a surplus of £19,000. Trade, too, has made big strides in 20 years. In 1910 imports were £1,900,000 and exports just over £1,000,000, nearly a million to the bad. In 1936 the imports had grown to £3.350,000 and exports to £4,500,000 —or £1,150,000 on the right side. ■ _ Britain’s share of this commerce is decreasing. Tanganyika took 42 per cent, of its imports from "his country in 1930 and 8.8 per cent, from Germany. Two years ago Britain’s share had fallen to 27 per cent.; Germany's had risen to 14 per cent. Germans like the place. Granted the right of free entry in 1925, about 3000 settled there in 12 years. There are 546 German land owners, 493 British. The rest are Greeks and Indians

Sisal is Tangayika’s mainstay—the plant from which cordage and twine are made. It accounts for half her export trade. Other products are cotton, ground nuts, coffee, hides, skins, gold. GERMAN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA “A dreary and desolate region which seems likely to prove of little value,” wrote a pessimistic traveller in 1899. All the same, there’s money in it. The Union of South Africa runs this colony of 318,000 square miles, with its 1000mile coastline.

In 1912 for every pound sterling Germany sent South-west Africa she ; got about seven shillings back. Things were much better than that two years ago. Here is the 1936-37 Budget: Receipts, £648,000; expenditure, £759,000. A £500,000 adverse trade balance had been converted (according to the latest returns) into a surplus of well over £1,000,000. Diamonds form a large share of the export trade, which also includes animals for slaughter, meat, hides and skins and butter. One valuable possession is the deposits of vanadium, used for steel alloys. More than 400 miles of new railways and 700 miles of motor roads have been added since the Germans left. Southwest Africa also takes a small share of British goods. Two years ago 50 per cent, of its imports came from Germany; only 20 per cent, from Britain. Most impressive feature in the landscape of the Cameroons is the active volcano, Mount Cameroon, the only African mountain to be washed by the sea. This 13,000 ft giant stands in British territory, for the German Cameroons, 191,000 square miles, were divided info British and French mandates. Britain took 34,000 square miles—a strip on the north-west, adjoining Nigeria.

A hot, rainy, mountainous, rather uncomfortable land—the least developed of all the German colonies. Today there are only 320 Europeans in the British part, among 780,000 natives. They do a nice trade in cocoa, rubber, palm kernels, palm oil—and lately in bananas, an expanding industry. A DEFICIT REMAINS The Cameroons, too, was a costly jewel in the Imperial crown. Consider the Budget of 1912—receipts, £316,000; expenditure, £882,000. There is still a deficit—though not so big. Revenue in the small British section in 1935 was £94,000 and expenditure £l2l,ooo—out of pocket, £27,000. Among the German colonies Togoland was the ewe lamb. It was a model estate, self-supporting, peaceful, not asking for any subsidies—no trouble at all.

A queer sort of land—running 345 miles into the interior, yet with a coast line of only 32 miles. It ran to 33,700

square miles, but now it is split up into British and French mandates. Our portion is a narrow ribbon of 13,000 square miles adjoining, and administered by, the Gold Coast. The principal trade is done in palm kernels, palm oil, and cocoa, but it is difficult to estimate-the growth of commerce since German times, as complete British statistics are not published. Since 1919. roads have been built, railway lines laid, and telephones extended. Medical science has fought to make the land worth living in. So much for Germany’s pre-war possessions in Africa. Of her Pacific territories the most important was: The mandate of German New Guinea, along with the Bismarck Archipelago, and the Solomon Islands, was granted after the war to Australia—and the development in New Guinea since then has been remarkable. Of all the former German colonies none other has made so much progress. A BIG TRADE INCREASE The German portion of this still largely unknown island was 90,000 square miles, with a native population of about half a million. In 1910 imports were £194,000, exports £lBl,OOO. In 1936 ’Australian enterprise had increased tradq. more than tenfold. Exports stood at £2,500,000; imports at £1,400,000, leaving a nice favourable balance. Coco-nut is by far the principal crop, and the yield of this and other products, such as coffee, cocoa and rubber, has been enormously increased by scientific methods of cultivation. In 1914 there were 84,000 acres of plantations. Twa years ago there were 484,000 acres. The bulk of the trade is done with Australia, with-Britain taking second place. In 1935-36 this country sold the territory goods worth £184,000. Out in the Pacific, mere dots on the atlas, are the Marshall Islands, the Marianne Islands, the Caroline Islands, and the island of Pelew. Japan holds these mandates. .. Germany’s only Far Eastern possession was Kiao-chau, wrested from China in 1897 as reparation for the murder of two of her missionaries. Later; by agreement, it was leased to Germany for 99 years. Japan took it over during the war, handed it to China afterwards, and is now wrangling over it. Finally, and this is the limit of German possessions before the war, there were the Samoan Islands and little Nauru.

Jn 1914 the Samoan Islands were occupied by New Zealand, and at the end of the war the mandate was awarded ■that Dominion. There is always a surplus in the small healthy budget of happy Samoa. The equally healthy condition of the light-hearted islanders is shown by the fact that the population increased from 40,000 to 55,000 between 1926 and 1936. Nauru is an atoll only 12 miles in circumference, but its surface is almost entirely made up of phosphates. The export of phosphates in 1936 alone was well over half a million tons. This valuable island is now held under the joint mandate of Britain, Australia, and New Zealand.