The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-09-15

make even far Abyssinia tributary To
French African commerce. In short
French Africa is a country Of solid
and prosperity.
of the southeast coast of Africa
France acquired h 1895, by ppro-
prlaton, Madagascar, an island larger
than France herself, with q popula-
ton OF W and d half million. 1t
was under the third Napoleon that
France acquired her present valuable
possessions in Asia. these consist of
Tonquin, CambOdia, and Cochin-China
in the Indo-Chinese peninsula,
and with a combined population of
eleven million. Besides these France
has French Guiana on the South
American mainland and numerous
islands in the West Indies and in the
Indian and Pacific oceans. Altogeth-
er she controls a colonial dominion in
combined area eleven times larger
than herself and with a population of
fifty million. n
BeIgium's Colony.
"Faliant Belgium. by transfer from
n personal possession OF her king
in 1908, is in control of the African
Congo, a territory eighty times her
w area and with an estimated popu-
lation Of twenty million African saw
ages. This territory is in immediate
contact on it's eastern border with
German East Africa fact that NAV
prove significant at the end of the
present war If Germany is able,
through the defeat OF the allies. to
force Belgium repentance for refusal
of peaceful passage to the Kaiser's
troops.
Colonial Possessions of Germany.
Germany possessed no c%olonies
prior to 1880. Bismark. the archi-
tect of German u%nification, in his
early years did not believe in Ger
many's attempting the acquisition Of
colonies. In 1871 he refused to de
mand as prize Of war any of the
French colonial possessions, immod-
estly c~ontenting himself with the
levy Of five thousand million fancs
war indemnity. But the interest
aroused In the exploits of certain pri-
vate German companies gave rise to
ware 1880 to a definite colonial
policy. Vitalized by the prospective
tariff policy begun by Bis1nark in
1919, German commercial interests
decided that colonies could be useful
In consequence, by 1884 Germany had
seized d number of points in Africa
where her companies had blazed the
way, in the southwest, the west, anG
the east. She thus acquired a scat.
tered African empire Of five times
the size Of Germany itself and witt
an estimated population Of fourteen
million. The Camaroons, bound il
between French Congo and English
Nigeria and leaning upon the eastern
shoulder OF the Gulf of Guinea maxi
up abOut One-sixth Of this. Togoland
with base on h northern Guine:
Acoast, has French Dahomey for east
ern and northern, with English Golt
Coast for western nefghbor.
German South West Africa,
great territory in immediate contac
with England's South Africa Union
destroys the photographic contour o
these possessions from the Zambes
, to the Orange River. German Eas
Africa, alone greater in size than tn
) home state, with a long coaSt-1ine O.
the Indian ocean and extending west
Z ward to the Belgian Congo, stand
t athwart the projected Cape to Cair
railroad which was the dream of Gee
, Rhodes, the empire builder. 1t thu
freaks the continuity Of English so
from the SouthermoSt point Of Afric
to the mouth of the Nile. Germany i
6 addition has, in the Pacific, part {
V the Samoan group, together with tn
: Caroline and Ladrone island except
Ing Guam) purchased from Spain i
1899
Suppose!
l. Suppose the God OF Battles il
z Zines toward Germany and Austria j
the present gigantic conflict SuppOs
that Germany, with her unrivalle
military efficiency, holds, at the en-
of the war, the vital lines of bot
y France and Russia in her hands
Even England, though unconquere
e on the sea, would be fain to acquies(
It in terms for her suffering allies tn;
G would save them the vital thrust. ]
l. which case France stands to lose a
n tAr,niro which for fnroa I orfo of
o century she has been building in A
n RIGA and Asia. This is truly an in
II perial stake and, il won, would giN
Germany her place in the sum- tn;
n latterly she has so ardently coVete
q Add Belgian Congo to that A logic
deduction from the suppOStitil
a premises. All these combined wi
n Germany's other African possession
would give her seventy per cent
n the area of a continent which cor
h prises one fifth of the land of II
at globe.