BLACK ARMIES.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7917, 11 August 1917, Page 4 (Supplement)

BLACK ARMIES.

A. few weeks ago General Smuts ma<le the remarkable statement that “Central Africa b n>w right in the centre u world politics.” An English writer o' repute expresses the opinion that n the rush of current events far too l’ttle attention h.' been paid to the pregnant and solemn warning voiced by General Smuts. Already there is a great deal of talk in cer'.ain quarters regarding the problem presented by the German colonies, a d it must be admitted that much of this talk Ls extremely premature. The defenders of civilisation have agreed to make peace in common, hut we must bent the Germans first. They are not beaten yet, so that all we can p-ofitablv do meanwhile is to discuss the questions which the natrons will have to decide rhen the day of eettlemer.t arrive. Why, then, Js General Smuts anxio : about the future of Equatorial Africa? Because the war has brought tha surprising revelation that the African negroes can he transformed into some of the finest lighting material in th world. General Smuts confesses that his ©ves were open ed by his East African experiences. Be realised then for the first time that it would be possible to organise among the African blacks “one of the most powerful armies the world has ever seen.’ Commander Wedgwood said the same thing in Parliament. Ho declared that the Askar is in East Africa who fought under German leadership were “ the most formidable forces of black troops that T have ever seen ” (The term “Askori” is the East African cqtiivi lint for “sepoy,” but has an Asiatic derivation.) For strength and brute •• ’-age, for insensibility to pain, for ability to endure fatigue and short commons, for doeilitv under orders, foi fearlessness of d u ath, some of the black n ps of Central Africa are almost unequalled. Commander Wedgwood believes that a mighty black army could *»e created which would ’’walk through Africa.” But why, Mr Loval Fraser .nks. should such an army walk through \friea only? In reply, he says:—

N\e dimly perceived the fighting qualities oi Atncan manhood when we nised the King’s African Rifle-.; but Germany made the discovery far more thoroughly and laid her plans accordingly. That she precipitated the war I) nne her African schemes were ripe is only another example of her many blunders; but it must be remembered that when she drew the swcrd she calculated that Great Britain would re main neutral In her view Africa could wait. Yet she did not neglect the African side >f her plans, for she looked far ahead, according to her wont. The British public still fails to understand that six weeks before the war Viscount Grey of Fniiodon, and Prince Lichnowsky, the German Ambassador, initialed in London a series ■of agreements between Great Br’tain mid Germany. Viscount Grey took tlii, extraordinary step although his colleagues, Mr Asquith, Lord Haldane, and others have since told us that they knew all the while that Germany was plotting the destruction < f the British Empire These agreements did not relate to the Baghdad Railway alone, for they included certain conditional arrangements regarding the future of portions of tropical Africa which would have been of enormous benefit to Germany. Had they endured, she would have been free to organise the Black Peril tor her own purposes. Her aims are not in the least economic, o.vepfc incidentally. They are summed uii in tin* expression Machtpolitik, Force-politics. She seeks world-domin-ion. General Smuts told us the essence of tlij German plan, which is to create a great Central African Empire, ' from the Indian Ocean io the South Atlantic Ocean. Various Gorman commentators and pamphleteers have since expounded the sc lie rue more fully, for these infatuated people still dream of victory, and make no secret of their future intentions. The Germans continue to believe that they will so manipulate the peace as to get their colonies back. They .see visuion.s of millions of black warriors marching northward through Egypt into Europe when they begin a modern version ot he Second Punic War. Not an extremist in Russia shouts “No annexations” nvorc fervently than the ••on.spirators of too German Colonial Office. Their project, which was first disclosed in 1012 under the direct Inspiration of the German Government, is to acquire Portugu * e East and West Africa and the Belgian Congo, anil to link these territories with Knmerun. Til conjunction witli a re invigorated Turkov. they hope to seize Egypt and the -"sudan. They will hold the Suez Canal, and bv means of naval base.; on both s’de.; of Africa thev will command the sea routes to the East and to Australasia. And their main instrument will e hordes of blne’v troops trained and equipped in tropical Africa. Mr Lovat Fraser does not believ that this foul scheme will ever he realised, unless the Allies go mad at th * conference table; but lievettheless !i? warns us that it would be a fatal error m r vrd the German scheme cf African control ai either remote or visionary. Mr F raser says nothing about the Pacific; but he regards it as manifest that the question of a possible re-entry of G -rman in Alien?? into the Pacific -s a matter of deep concern to the United States, to .la pa a, to Australia and \e;v Zealand, h Franc?, and to the people of the Mother Country.