Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1914-08-20
HALF THE WORLD
IS NOW At WAR
More than %, 100000 Square
Miles of Lands Area
Affected
898,440,000 PEOPLE
More Than Half Of the
Total Population Of the World
Directly Concerned in Great
COnflagratiOn.
(By Lawrence Elston)

involved in the great war now spread
ing over all Europe.
That is not broad statement or a
glittering generality Stupendous
stunning as it may appear at first
glance, a study of statistics will show
it to be fact that over fifty per cent
of the earths area. land and sea, and
slightly in excess of fifty per cent OF
the worlds population are directly
concerned in the conflagration.
Roughly, there are about 56,O00,000
square miles OF the worlds land
area The powers now at war and
their colonies occupy approximately
2S,9S2, 1916 square miles, trifle more
than half the total. The seas of the
world are controlled by the powers in
about the same proportion as the
land.
Whitaker's London Almanack esti-
mates the worlds total population in
1912 at 1,623,300. 900 people. The war
ring powers and their colonies con-
tain sos, 100000 people, considerably
more than one-half.
With so much of the world con-
trolled by the warning nations, no
grand division of the earth, no CONT
nent and none of the great oceans is
without the very real possibility of be-
coming battle ground for conflict
| between the nationals of the contend
! ing powers.
Least of the continents, Europe
since the time of Columbus, has eX-
tended it's claims over the lands and
populations everywhere until today its
great movements overshadow the
greater share of the worlds people as
we'll as the lands.
The countries now directly involved
in the war hold these areas and popu-
locations.
British Empire, 13.523,712 square
| miles: 100000 people.
! :. Russian empire, S,647 ,637 square
miles; S3,S50,000 people.
German empire, 1,243,S66 square
miles: S0,000,000 people.
Belgium and the Congo Free State,
911,000 square miles; 2S,000,000 peo-
] pie.
Austra-H Hungary, POI ,099 square
miles; 51,340,000 people.
Servia, 1861 square miles; 4,000,-
600 people.
Germany has secured foothold in
Africa where she controls about one
million square miles in the the south
ern part of the continent, German
East Africa and German West Africa
| Between these two provinces which
are about equal in size, lies the great
South African British empire. With
1 ~ nntiro1v eliminated frioo
would be far on the way toward being
an English and French continent.
France at present holds more Afri-
can territory than any other nation
aggregating more than four million
square miles, or greater area than
that of the United States, with Alaska
and the American insular possessions
included. This French territory takes
in most of the Sahara Desert, Algeria
in the north and a vast fertilearea in
the valleys of the Nile and the Niger
Egypt is still nominally depend
ency of the Turkish empire but for
all practical purposes both Upper
Egypt and Lower Egypt are British
possessions. The Sudan provinces of
England now join the British terri
tories in East Africa which includes a
frontage of about four hundred miles
on the Indian Ocean. Thus the route
is nearly all in British territory for
the "Cape to Carlo" railroad.
In the very heart of tropical Africa
lies the Congo Free State, wit hnearly
a million square miles, nominally a
Belgian dependency. 1t touches Brit
ish South Africa and also the British
Soudan holdings. 1t requires no bold
stretch OF the Imagination to conveive
that the present great war may
change the map of Africa to a consid-
cradle extent. When the great pow
ers sit down around the council table
at the end of the conflict England, in
return for her support of Belgium
against the Germans, might easily ask
that the sovereignty of the Congo Free
State be entrusted to her.
France might well be expected to
assent to this, because her African
holdings would likely be consolidated
and considerably extended as the re-
suit of her participation In the war
With the Congo Free State in her pos
session, Great Britain would then hold
a great strip of Africa running almost
due north and south from the Medit-
terranean to the Cape. She would
control the interior lake region of the
Dark Continent whose vast bodies of
navigable fresh water are fairly conf
parable to the Great Lakes of the
United States: the Congo Valley: the
gold and diamond reefs of South
Africa and practically every mile of
the immense and rich valley of the
| Nile.
The consolidated British Empire in
Africa thus brought into being would
exceed the British holdings in any
other continent. not excepting Aus
tralia and the Dominion of Canada.
On the other hand. should Germany
be the dictator in the peace terms at
the end of the great struggle, she
would undoubtedly exact a large part