The Glenwood post., 1923-01-25
Uade Ted's Bed Time Storie
Current Events for the Children
and 0rown-ups, Too
BRITISH AND FRENCH DEBTS

The time for the evening story had
come, and Jack was eager to ask
Uncle Ted about something that had
been on his mind all day.
GA long time ago." said he, 'you
told us that the big German colonies
in Africa that were captured in the
war were going to be divided among
the allies, but since then we haven It
heard anything more about them.
Won't you tell us, Uncle Ted, what
has been done with them, and if they
are really worth anythingf"
81 am glad, Jack, that you have
brought that matter up" replied
Uncle Ted. "'You and Ruth are not
the only ones who have heard nothing
about those old German terrtorities.
For some reason there has been hardly
any mention of them in our news
papers for two or three years. Many,
many columns have been printed dis
cussing the ability of Great Britain,
France, and the other allies to pay
their big debts to the United States,
but nobody seems to have remembered
the big new countries that were' won
from Germany, or to have considered
that the natural wealth they contain
is sufficient to pay those debts several
times over. 1 will tell you all that I
know about them.
"The former German territories
were distributed among the allies as
mandates under a paragraph con-
tanned in the covenant of the league
of nations. The countries that got
them are supposed to look after them
in the interest OF the native popula-
tions, but really they have become
colonies of those countries, and their
wealth is at the disposal of their new
owners. The German colonies in Afri-
ca had an area Of 100000 square miles,
about four and half times as large
as the old German empire in Europe.
There were four of them: German
East Africa, German Southwest Afri-
ca, the Kameruns, and Togoland.
"German East Africa is now called
of about 365,o00 square miles, all but
10000 of which is now controlled by
Great Britain, and the rest by Bel
gium. German Southwest Africa is
$4,000 square miles in extent, and
was given entirely to Great Britain.
The Kameruns has been translated
Cameroons. 1t has an area of 191 900
square miles, 15s,000 of which went to
France. and the rest to Great Britain.
Togoland has an area of 33,700 square
miles, about one-third of which went
to Great Britain and the rest to
France.
'You see from those figures that
about four-fifths of that African land
is now Brit sh, and about one-fifth
French All the colonies are much the
same in natural resources, population,
etc, and most of what l am going to
tell you about them can be applied to
all alike.
"You must realize, children, that
those countries are wild. They are in
habited by wild black men, and civ
ilization has scarcely made an impress
sion upon the natives or upon the Won
derful riches of the land. That is the
reason why they have not yielded more
treasure for the use of their new own
ers. But in that they are no different
from Canada when the British first
obtained control of the country, or
from our own nation when the Indians
were the only people who lived here.
"Those African colonies have
population of about 100000 natives,
but only 23,500 white men. That
means that there is only one white
man to every 40 square miles of terri
tory, and only one white man to
every $40 wild men. Is it any wonder
that the rich mines, the great hard
wood forests, the large grazing lands,
and the wide agricultural districts
have produced but very small part
of what they are capable of yielding?
The riches of our own great west were
not known until the country had been
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