Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-03-13

departed; in 1881 the number had
scared enormously and the surging
outward tide was deemed calamitous
by those who foresaw the dawn OF
the day of kultur and militarism.
A Hard Taskmaster.
Germany, it is admitted, was a
hard taskmaster and a poor one.
She attempted TO copy the English
method of conciliation and assist
ance, but she failed miserably, and
upon failure she resorted to the lash
and other forms Of cruelty. Through
all the years of her long leases on
alien soil she has never experienced
success, but she has bred hatred
and anger in the hearts of those she
ruled.
Southwest Africa, on which India
has longing eyes, was the white
mans" country of the intended en-
pire. Its native population is small,
its possibilities are large.
Although it suffers from a lack of
rainfall, its hills and broad valleys
are well fitted for grazing and the
consequent business of meat pack
ing. In addition, there are valuable
copper mines in the northern sec
ton, rich diamond mines along the
south coast and other advantages
which under careful exploitation
will yield large returns.
Togoland-in the heart of the
tropics-Was one of the most sue
cessful colonies. In 1918 it did
business of $5,000O00 in trade, in
spite of its comparatively small area
and small number of inhabitants.
For some reason or other Germany
found less difficulty with the natives
of Togoland than many other of
her African possessions.
Natives Rebelled.
Then comes the Cameroons or
Kamerun, where trouble was the or
der of the day. The exports in 1918,
though, totalled about $7,250,000,
mostly rubber, palm oil, palm kerr
nels and cocoa.
German New Guinea leads in the
Pacific colonies for it is rich in cop
"a producing cocoanuts, rubber, fine
woods, tropical fruits, coffee and cot
ton. In 1914 an Australian expedi-
tionary force took the island over.
Next is the Bismarck archipelago,
with the chief two islands Of New
Britain and New Ireland, and many
smaller ones-which also succumbed
in 1914 to an Australian, expedition.
There are the German Solomon Is
lands, whose dense tropical forests
possess considerable wealth; Ger
man Samoa, whose next door neigh
bors are islands owned by the United
States and Great Britain; the Caro-
line Islands, whose only value per-
haps is their strategic importance
and over which Japan has exercised
protectorate for four years; the
Marianne or Ladrone Islands, of
which Guam, owned by the United
States, is one of the group-the 9TH
ers of which are in the temporary
possession of Japan-and lastly the
Marshall Islands, also in the hands
of Japan. Their chief value is strate-
gic. 1t might be borne in mind that
all of the islands north of the equa-
tor-and held by Japan-are strate-
gic in Importance, and of little actual
value.
Boche Wrecked Empire.
For the destruction of the empire
two typically Teutonic concepts are
responsible, both of which are mis-
taken and injurious to development.
ment.
One of the German concepts, as
said before, was to create a New
Germany" in Africa, and the other
was to free the fatherland from de-
pendence on foreign nations for CO.
lonial wares by producing them
within her own African domain.
Failure greeted the practice of these
ideas, however, for the year 1918
saw but 1852 Germans in the New
Germany" and of this number only
10000 were actual settlers. The
German, the world has learned, does
not relish any assumption of the
white mans burden. Furthermore,
the attempts to Prussianize the ma
tives were ignominious failures.
The chief disappointment, though,
was measured in dollars and cents,
for the vast African lands supplied
only 3 per cent of Germany's total
colonial imports. And this is one
of the reasons why the peace con-
ference believes that Germany's
economic future is in no way con-
tingent on the return of these col
onies.
Cruel Punishments.
All in all, however, the poor ma
tive was the chief sufferer, because
the German colonial governments
regarded their subjects as serfs and
treated them accordingly. Forced
labor was one ideal of the German
colonial system; scorn of the native
was another, and severe and cruel
punishment was the order of the
day whenever the authorities be-
lieyed the natives were not per-
forming to the utmost of their phys
ical strength.
Sanitary conditions have been
termed "execrable;;" disease of the
most vicious type was rampant, and
the relation of employer to employe
was that of master and slave. Flog-
gings were administered on the
slightest pretext and West Africa
and part of the Cameroons bore
the gruesome nickname of "The
land of the twenty-five" because of
the fact that this was the regular
number of lashes dealt by the ST.