Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-28
John Bulls Big Share of the
White Mans Burden.
ENGLAND'S COLONIES
WHAT RELATION THEY BEAR TO
THE MOTHER COUNTRY.
Developing the Far Corners Of the
Earth-Planning New Rail-
roads-Wealth Of Africa.
Copyright, 1903. by Frank G. Carpenter.)
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star
LONDON.
John Bull is the modern Sinbad the
Sailor. The hero of the Arabian Nights
was loaded down with the one Little Old
Man Of the Sea. John Bull has eight
black, brown, yellow or white Jumps of
humanity on his shoulders to every man,
woman and child in Great Britain, and
his colonies cover the. globe He is the
boss colonizer of the nations, the boss
land grabber and people grabber. In one
way another he has gotten title to
one-fifth of the land on the earth's sur
face, and he governs more than one-fifth
of all the worlds people.
1t costs John a pretty penny to keep
up his outside establishments. He has
an army of 100000 men scattered here
and there through his various depend
encies; he has established the biggest
navy on earth to defend them, and he has
piled up a national debt of enormous
proportions
At the same time, the English believe
their colonies pay. They say they could
not exist as manufacturing nation
without them. They rely upon them for
their raw materials and they sell them
great part of the British home products.
The English colonial trade is enormous.
In imports it gives Great Britain $547,-
100000 worth of raw materials and food
StuHo every year, ana lHlS Is more lHdf
the country gets from any place else out
side the United States. AS for US, we fur
nish John Bull the cotton with which he
is clothed and we spoon-feed his corpu-
lent frame. In exports he sells his colo
MES a full half billion dollars worth an
nually, which is about one-third of his
whole foreign trade.
British Trusts and Colonial Stocks.
The British invest to a large extent in
colonial securities. A look at the stocks
sold here on the exchange shows that the
undertakings represented are scattered
over the globe. The market goes wild
over the diamonds of South Africa, the
gold mines of the Rand and the wool prod
ucts of Australia You can buy stocks
colonies. There are coffee syndicates
from Borneo, tea syndicates of Cey-
Ion and India, sheep stocks from the
Falkland Islands, Glove companies of Fan
Zibar, and, indeed so many different trusts
devoted to foreign investments that page
of this paper would not hold them all.
Great Britain has now more than four
billion dollars directly invested in the col
onies Much of this is in loans at low
rate of interest, the government substan-
TALLY guaranteeing the dividends. Some
of the larger syndicates are under the pa
tronage of the king. The British North
Borneo Company, which is selling land and
laying out coffee ard rubber plantations
about Sandakan, governs the country Tor
graph lines and is selling lands under the
guarantee of British protection.
The British South African Company mas
been practically controlling Rhodesia an
enormol : territory in south-central A1rl-
ca 1t has 4 capital of S2ooOoOoo ana It's
revenues a, several million dollars year year.
The British east African Company, "hich
has been oper- ting in Zanzibar ana aions
the east coast If the continent, mas ac-
ouired hundreds IF thousands or square
miles of territory, and that ADDED 70 tne
empire by the British South AFRICA COM
pany is ten times as big as pennsylvania
These companies have surveyed more than
10 600 900 acres of land. They have built
towns and villages. They have laid down
railroads and telegraphs and are opening
I'D commerce in every direction
Another coonizing company Is operating
along the Niger. 1t began with capital
of S5,OO0,OOO, and has made treaties with
more than 800 African kings. 1t has river
fleet and has established trading stations.
Through 1t the British have gained terri
tory ten times as big as the state of New
York, with population of 100000.
The British in Africa.
But this is by no means all that the Brit
ish are doing in Africa. They have already
taken possession of the very best lands OF
that continent and are making improve
ments in nearly every territory. Including
Egypt which they practically own, they
have about one-third of all the land IN
Africa, or in all territory larger than the
whole United States. Cape Colony IS big
ger than Texas, Natal and Zululand are
larger than Maine, Basutoland is bigger
than Vermont and Bechuanaland is more
than ten times as big as Indiana. The
TranSVaal is about twice the size of Illinois,
the Orange River Colony is as big as New
York, Rhodesia would make eight states
like Missouri, and East Africa including
the Nile basin. is alone about one-sixth as
large as the whole United States. In the
western part of the continent Nigeria is
twice big California, Lagos and Yoru-
ba are just about three times big as