PREFACE
By Lieut.-Col. A. St. H. Gibbons , F.R.G.S., F.R.C.I., 23rd (Service) Batt. Roy. Fusiliers (1st Sportsman's)
In giving his readers a very concise and reliable description of "Germany's Vanishing Colonies," the author performs a useful public service. To the travelled man who may have seen something of these Colonies the work carries conviction; for others it has a useful educative value. Knowledge is essential to sound judgment, and althoughthanks to the policy of the late Paul Kruger!a growing interest in our great Empire has permeated all classes in recent years, anything like a comprehensive knowledge of the local conditions and interests of our 12,000,000 miles of Empire is not to be expected until our schools and universities have added to their curriculum systematic instruction in Imperial history and geography.
This book provides important and interesting data on which, at the close of the war, that policy which will determine the status and ownership of Germany's overseas possessions can be built. To some it may appear that the title of the book implies the dividing of the skin before the lion is killed. Be that as it may; to those who have never felt misgivings as to the ultimate result of this life-and-death struggle for Empire, the speculative element is overshadowed by the supreme importance of inspiring the public mind with an accurate and intelligible grasp of the situation. At times consciously, at others unconsciously, democratic Governments reflect the mind of the community. In due course, our statesmen, working in concert with the Dominion Governments, will be called upon to decide, in the name of the Empire, how far it is politic, either for strategic or economic purposes, to annex all or part of such German oversea possessions as the Allies in council shall decide to be within the British sphere of influence. Let the people in private and public discussion, and through the medium of the Press, come to something like an unanimous decision (and this volume should help them to do so), and so strengthen the hands of the Government when the crucial hour arrives.
No doubt every aspect will be taken into consideration. It will be noted that from the moment Germany decided to establish a colonial Empire her envious hatred of Great Britain took root. She realised that at the British Empire's expense alone could she fully develop her ideal. This feeling has grown and intensified until, in recent years, she had barely cloaked her ambitious design to replace us as a world Power. When the final word is spoken, and compensation for loss in life and treasure is forced on us by her unscrupulous action is discussed, it will, I think, be ruled that we are more than justified in absorbing, as part payment, those possessions which she had designed to expand at the expense of ours.
Again, British and French Foreign Office dispatches, at the outbreak of war and subsequently, go to show that German diplomacy has been deeply tinged with covetousness and that special kind of hatred born of envy; that she has brushed aside all honourable and humanitarian considerations, and ignored that international code to which she herself had set her seal in favour of a ruthless and unscrupulous application of the principle of brute force. Nor in this case can she offer the "first offenders'" plea. Before the Bar of History she is confronted by Mary Therese and Francis Joseph of Austria, by the quondam Kingdom of Poland, by Denmark and France. Each and all give evidence of forced war as a step towards Prussian expansion.
Can a nation so deeply impregnated with such principles since its cradle days so far reform its political methods as to give reasonable assurance that in thirty or forty years hence she will not reintroduce into the life of nations that spirit and practice of mediaeval barbarism (now better known as "kultur") which at present racks the civilised world? We may leave it to the Ethiopian and the leopard may reply.
Popular opinion at present seems to indicate an almost unanimous opinion that the roar of the last cannon will ring down the curtain on the German Empire of to-day. That Prussia's Polish province and Alsace-Lorraine will cease to be German may be assumed. Should Denmark recover Schleswig-Holstein, should Hanover regain her independence, and Bavaria repudiate Prussia's uncongenial overlordship it wouldin the event of a non-annexation policy being adoptedbe difficult to decide to whom the present German Colonies belongthis, of course, irrespective of conquests which have been or may be effected in the meantime, and which, in accordance with the German theory that "might is right," will, ipso facto, have been transferred to the Allies with a "clean title."
History serves to show that to annex territory carrying a considerable homogeneous and hostile population is seldom a success, but since the German Colonies are so sparsely settledpartly because her bureaucratic methods discourage immigration, and partly because she has no difficulty in absorbing her surplus population at homethis argument does not apply here. Closely linked with this is the native question. Personal observation, supported by first-hand information, serves to show that German treatment of indigenous populations is just what might be expected. To the Englishman, discipline implies leadershipto the German, the mere forcing of will, without consideration for their feelings or personal interests, on subordinates. It serves to crush out individuality and self-respect. It is the discipline of "push." Those who have travelled in Germany will have noticed how this spirit permeates all ranks and classes. That its application becomes more intense in dealing with inferior races, where the restraints of civilisation do not exist, will surprise no one. In the Pacific Islands, as in their African Colonies, the same tale is told. Their native population would rejoice to exchange German for British rule.
If, then, we are to save the next generation from a second great European upheaval, and if we desire to emancipate those native races at present under German control from a system of harsh and selfish exploitation, Germany in Europe must, by the elimination of provinces detached from neighbouring states by previous wars of aggression, be deprived of the power she has so notoriously abused, and if we are to do our obvious duty by the native races, her Colonies must pass to other hands.
A. St. H. GIBBONS.
25th December, 1914.
