The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-12
SneoiaI to The Aae. Herald

|
 ence in Paris and the interna-
 tional boundaries of at least 1ree continents are to be redrawn.
 hese continents are Europe. Asia and
 frica, with mighty changes to be lade also in Oceanica and Austral-
 sia. I have a personal acquaintance
 ith most of the regions involved, and
 propose to take up the great stakes
 peace and show what they are in
 ain common sense English. My first
 lbject will be Germany'S colonial em- ire, with special attention to her vast possessions in Africa.
 In 1914 when the greedy mouth of he Kaiser watered for territory and g tried to swallow the greater part the world. the German empire quare miles. and it had, in addition, )reign colonies and dependencies mounting to more than 100000 luare miles. The home country in ,urope is about four times as big as ihio or Kentucky, and less by the big ess of Illinois or Missouri than the tate of Texas. The colonies were five nd one-half times as great. Alto ether they were almost one-third as srge as the whole United States, in- ,tuding Alaska. and nine-tenths Of hem were in the continent of Africa.
 The African possessions of Ger many began with her colonies on the fluff of Guinea. One of these was Cogoland. low. flat, malarial region our times as large as the state of Massachusetts. It had a black pop 'lIation of more than 100000, and he whole was ruled and exploited by less than 400 Germans. On the ,ast was the Gold Coast. belonging 10 Great Britain, and on tfs west. Dahomey, a slice of the colonial pos sessions of France, which extended Town from the Sahara to the Gulf of Atuinea. Dahomey was the land of he Amazons-those famous female warriors of Africa. who sent cold thrills of terror down the backs of he best soldiers of France until they were conquered. Their last King vas Behanzin. whom I interviewed just before his death in captivity in Algeria a few years ago. He de- scribed his country as paradise, ana 1t is probably of the same character IS Togoland. over the way. The Ger mans raised 100000 pounds of cotton in Togoland just before the war. Da- honey is separated by the rich Eng fish province of Nigeria from the Ger man possessions.
 On the other side of Nigeria, further lown the coast of the gulf, lies the Ger nan province of Kamerun, surrounded " French lands on the north, east and puth, and away at the bottom of the ointment is the desert dependency of ferrnan Southwest Africa, with the Brit sh possessions known as the Union Of south Africa on the west and south and Portuguese West Africa on the north
 Kamerun is rich in ivory, oil palms and ubber It was conquered by the British rnder General Rotha and the Union of ;outh Africa is now administering It. kamerun is about six times as big as rogoland It would make four states the ,ize of New York, and it has popula- ion of about 2,500,00o Southwest Africa would make 10 states the size of South Carolina, or about 40 as big as Massa- ,husetts It has a small population or blacks, with a very few Germans Tn the most inhabited centers.
 Going around to the eastern Slde or he continent about half way down the soast between Port Said and the Cape Of food Hope, we find German East Afr1ca' which, after long campaign, was con Iuered by General Shuts with British army from South Africa, assisted by the troops of the Portuguese and the Bel .ians. This territory was the cream of Ger1nanys colonial empire. It contains more than 384,0O0 square miles, and 1t has l. population of something like S,oO,oN blacks There are only four or five thou- sand whites, and of the whites 1our- Hfths are Germans. In short, the total area of Germany in Africa was equal to about one-fourth the size Of the United States, and it had population six times as great as that of Germany in Europe. All of these lands have been conquered during the war; and they now come be- fore the peace conference as to their own ership and future development
 But before I go further. let me tell rou what Germany proposed to do with inc rest of Africa in case she succeeded m beating the French and the British. l shall paraphrase a statement i'll the Prus- sian year book which Professor Deloruck made at the time the Germans thought they were sure of conquering France ano getting over to England His statement translated is about as follows:
 sIf our victory is great enough we saa1I hope to unite under our hanc the whole of Central Africa, includ ing the Belgian Congo and Portuguese West Africa, with our colony ol Southwest Africa. We shall takt Senegambia, Sierra Leone, the Golt Coast, Dahomey and well populated Nigeria with the coast of Lagos. w shall annex to the Kamerun the rlcf islands of San Thome and Principe with their splendid ports, and shal take the Katanga ore district with it mountains of copper and also north ern Rhodesia and Nya saland. We shal take Mozambique and Delagoa pa' with the great French Island of Mada gasca over the way. We shall Joll English Zanzabar and Uganda to Ger man East Africa and have the who'll of Lake Victoria Nyanza in our ter ritory. We shall take the Azores Is lands for they belong to Portugal which is at war with Germany, and al of Portuguese Africa. These terri tories altogether have over 100,00O,OO inhabitants. United under a singl ownership they offer immeasurabl prospects. They are rich in potentia trade for German goods. in natura treasures and in men who can worl and also be used in war. To deman them is not unjust, since German would thus be only obtaining colon ial empire such as England, Russia France and America have long pos sessed."
 This statement, to which I have add ed only a few words to make it nor plain. indicates the Kaiser's ambition as to Africa, and between it's lines yo may read some of the aims German had in developing her colonial empire She did not look upon her colonies a her share of the white mans bur den" She did not develop them fo the good of the natives. but only To Germany and German trade. She ex pected tte natives to buy Germa goods and, as far as possible, kee all other merchants away. She use