Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-15
mans land and inforced it my machine

mans land ana ln1orced 1t my machine
guns.
In reviewing the recent growth of colo
| NAL empires it is impossible to help admir-
| ing the genius and foresight-aided possibly
| in some cases by sheer luck-which have
given England colonies on practically all
| the points of the globes surface where
| they are most useful. England has spun
! over the earth a network of colonial pos
| sessions. large and small, planted with I'M
erring instinct at those points where trade
| moves most rapidly and navigation is most
| proftably followed says German au-
| thority.
A glance at the map of the world will
I disclose a fact comprehended by few peo-
| pie except naval strategists-that 1t is
| Great Britains settled policy to place fort
resses in strategic positions that will enable
| her to close the. smaller seas of the world
at moments notice. Thus, Gibraltar COM
| mands the Mediterranean, and Alden and
| Perrin the Red sea, while from Malta and
Cyprus England could speedily inforce her
fiat sealing the Dardanelles to Russian
warShips.
| What Germany Has Done.
Germany's colonial ambitions in recent
years have been commercial rather than
| territorial, and in the race for Africa she
| has been emphatically left behind. If
Frenchmen will not go to the French col
| onies still less will Germans go to the Ger
man possessions
In the Cameroons there are over four and
| half millions of people, of whom between
| five and six hundred are Europeans-not all
| Germans. German East Africa has a pop
! ulation Of about 6,2OO000 people, with $40
Germans. German Southwest Africa has
| q 500 Europeans Of all nationalities to 200
| 600 natives, and is utterly undeveloped.
| Togoland, with two million and half IN
| habitants. has only about $50 Europeans.
These territories in the main, were gain
| ed in 1884, or since; but comparatively little
has been done with them. 1t seems that
Germans will emigrate anywhere in pref
erence to their own colonies. They have
built up a private colony of their own in
Rio Grande do Sui, in Brazil-a real i'm
perium in imperio''-for which the kaiser
| would doubtless be glad to give any two of
his official colonies, with the possible eX-
cep ton of Kiao-Chao.
This colony is of no great Importance in
itself, for it is only 300 square miles in ex-
tent but it is the key to the extensive him
terland of Shan Tung, with its 3S,O0O,OO
people and it's great mineral wealth. The
German government is pouring out millions
every year in the hope of making Using
Tao, the chief .own of the colony, rival
to Hong Kong as the center or the COM
merce of the or emit.
An Expensive Luxury.
The German colonies are burden to the
empire. Their annual revenue is less than
a quarter of their annual expenditure. and
the deficit has to be made up by an I'M
perial grant in aid. The present war with
will undoubtedly largely increase this def
lett
A million square miles-five times as large
as the home empire. That Is Hermany's
prize in the scramble for colonies that CEN
tered around the partition of Africa devised
by the genius of the late Lord Salisbury.
And scattered over those million square
miles are less than 6O,000 Germans, ipc1ud-
ing officials and troops. The trouble is that
all the colonies are tropical and subtroplcal
lands of no particular value.
But German financial and commercial en-
terprise has done wonders abroad since
1886, which was really the starting point of
the nations biggest foreign undertakings.
The Deutsche Bank of Berlin, the great
| private bank In Germany, Is maialy occu-
! pied in foreign enterprises. 1t started with
a capital of So, 10000: its capital is now
$50 GOO COO and the volume of its business
| is S13, LOCO 900 600 That is the best instance
| of German progress abroad, but It Is never
thelsss typical.
Italy dreamed dreams and saw visions of
an African empire similar to that which
France Is now trying to create. but they
were dispelled by the rude hand OF Meme
iik of Abyssnfa. Nevertheless. she has
saved italian Somaliland and Erythrea
from the wreck of her fortunes territory
Of nearly 100000 square miles and mil
lion people.
Russia's Few Colonies
Russia is commonly thought of as coun-
try with a vast stretch of colonial territory.
h,,t az a uatter of fact Siberia is officially