New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1914-12-23
Saturday Dec. %, 1914.
Official Paper OF the City Of New Ulm.
GERMAN COLONIES AS OUTPOSTS
OF SCIENCE.

dcl1ldu COAOAlCo' OOAAO VI VAAONA AeN0
already been wrested from the Father
land, and in the case of at least one
Kiachiau- the present possessors have
announced that their capture will never
be restored to its recent owners.
If the above question is interesting
on account of it's political and economic
aspects, it is no less so from the point of
view Of pure science. In fact, we are
inclined to think that German coloni-
zation has been more fruitful in scienti-
fic sense than in any other. Neither
as commercial enterprises nor as homes
for the surplus population of the parent
country have the German dependencies
been conspicuously successful. Accord
ding to the latest statistics, these pos
sessions had an aggregate population
of 14,89O,000, of whom only PATIO
were Of European race, and of these only
about $4,000 were permanent settlers.
In other words, single small town in
one of the great self-governing colonies
of Great Britain-C Canada, Australia, or
South Africa-couldm muster larger num-
Der of Europeans (and, in some cases,
a larger number of GermansD than the
the entire colonial empire of Germany.
Germans do not emigrate to the German
colonies $50 called) but to the United
States, Canada and South America.
The strategic value of most of these
dependencies is negligible. Germany,
like any other great power, needed forth
fled coaling stations and doclzyards in
various parts of the world for the use
of her navy, but could derive no military
advantage from vast tracts of tropical
jungle or archipelagos of atolls in the
South Pacific; in fact, as the event proved
these possessions were merely an en-
barrassment in warfare.
In the years 19O9-191O Prof. Hans
Meyer and his collaborators published
the two sumptuOus volumes of a monu-
mental geographical work called "Das
Deutsche Kloonialreich." In America,
except to those of us who had seen the
material of which this work is digest
in process of accumulation in such Jour-
mails as the Mitteilumgen aus den deutsch-
en- Schutzge5ieten, Petermanms Mitteilung-
en-, and various other Fachzeitschrifien,
it's contents were a revelation-not of
the extent to which the German pos
sessions had been exploited commercially
and politically, but of the thorough
going way in which each of them had
been exploited commercially and politi-
cally, but of the thoroughgoing
way in which each of them had
been studied and explored by German
geographers, biologists, ethnologists,
climatologists, biologists, and botanists.
German colonization in Africa began
just thirty years ago, about the time
when the great journeys of exploration
in that continent were beginning to
give place to intensive research. Here
was new world for German science to
conquer. Germany sent out her SOL
diers, her traders, and her missionaries,
just as other colonizing countries had
done, but she also sent to each of her
colonies strong corps of savants. whose
work was, for the most part, done under
official auspices. Just to cite one phase
of this work, each colony was soon dotted
over with meteorological stations, the
observations at which were taken by
petty officials, planters, missionaries,
and others, and ultimately published in
great detail at Berlin, so that at the pres
ent day we possess more complete eli
matte statistics for German East Africa,
Kamerun, and Togo, than for any
country in the Balkan peninsula except
Roumania.
In short, the acquisition of a virgin
country by Germany means the prompt
accumulation of an immense fund of
scientific knowledge concerning that
country collected with Conscientious
thoroughness, digested by experts, and
presented to the world in a form that
is delight to the eye as we'll as to the
understanding. The work of Meyer,
already mentioned, with it's profusion
of statistical charts, photographs,
aquarelles, tables, and descriptive text,
is typical.
The scientific tasks, undertaken by
! the Germans in their colonies are, OF
course, perennial. How we'll will they
be carried onward by any possible sue.
cessors? In all British countries it is
notorious that scientific research re.
ceives but lukewarm encouragement from
the government unless it can promise
immediate material results. Much Of
the scientific work done in the German
colonies would certainly be viewed
: askance by British administrators, the
private enterprise would doubtless il
some measure make amends for the lacl
Of official support. The French govern