SOUTH WEST AFRICA
Ever since her acquisition of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope,
vitally important to her in view of her interests in the East, Great
Britain had been unquestionably the supreme Power in the south of the
African Continent.
With the passing of the Dutch East India Company, Holland had ceased
to be a South African Power; while the Portuguese had lost their
status. The latter in reality only held an area along the coast of her
possessions, a great proportion of the interior, which undoubtedly
had once been beneficially occupied by Portuguese, having reverted to
savagedom.
The southern point of Portuguese South East Africa extended to and
included Delagoa Bay and Lourenço Marquez, while the southern boundary
of their western Colony was about the 22° S.
From the days of its earliest history the Cape Colony was subject to
attacks by natives, and the constant raids by hordes of Kafirs caused
the Colony to extend its borders and absorb and settle the Hinterland.
[Illustration: THE GERMAN COLONIES IN AFRICA, 1914.
(Reproduced by permission of _The Times_.)]
Up to 1883 the natural course of beneficial occupation and development
had been towards the east and north-east borders, over the more fertile
and naturally resourceful portions of the country, rather than west and
north-west, where a comparatively arid zone intervened.
Towards the Orange and Vaal Rivers the hardiest race of pioneers the
world has ever seen, the "Voor-trekking" Boers, pressed onwards to
escape from subjection to any form of government excepting their own
patriarchal control. Their story hardly comes within the scope of this
modest work; but it is indissolubly connected with the making of South
Africa, and a brief sketch of their history may be permissible.
The exodus of the Boers, who were composed of farmers of not only Dutch
but French and English origin, commenced with the Great Trek of 1836,
and they spread out ever seeking freedom from restraint. They came into
collision with the Zulus under Dingaan, by whom a number of them were
treacherously massacred, but whom they finally severely defeated and
Dingaan fled.
Dissensions arose amongst the Boers shortly after, and a number trekked
on and established a separate settlement, with Potchefstroom as
capital. Those who remained occupied Natal and established a Republic.
Here, however, they did not find peace, for Sir George Napier, in
command of the British forces at the Cape, dispatched a contingent to
drive them out. This contingent the Boers nearly annihilated.
A settler, Dick King, then made his memorable ride from Durban to
Grahamstown, covering the distance of 375 miles in nine days, and
reinforcements were sent up.
Natal was, in 1843, declared to be a British Colony, with the result
that a fresh exodus of Boers occurred across the Drakensberg Mountains
into Griqualand.
For forty years the Boers wandered, but wherever they tried to settle
they were pressed on--being continually told that they could not shake
off their allegiance, although no step was taken to reclaim them or the
country they won.
So far from receiving protection from the Cape Government, the latter
even armed the Griquas against the Boers, and sent a military force to
the assistance of the natives. And so they were harried until they were
allowed to establish their Republics of the Transvaal and Free State,
until overtaken by the destiny which Providence had marked out for them.
In 1881 an attempt was made by Great Britain to annex the Transvaal,
but after General Colley's defeat and death at Majuba the independence
of the Transvaal was acknowledged under British suzerainty.
The western border of the Transvaal Republic marched on Bechuanaland
and the Kalahari Desert, and in 1882 the Transvaal completed a
convention with the Portuguese Government under which the former was
granted a concession to build a railway from the capital, Pretoria, to
Delagoa Bay on the east coast.
The delimited boundary of the Cape Colony was the Orange River, but
as early as 1793 a Dutch expedition from the Cape took possession of
Walfisch Bay, Angra Pequena, as well as Possession, Ichaboe, and other
islands on the south-west coast in the name of the Dutch East India
Company, while Namaqualand and Damaraland had been traversed from end
to end by British and Dutch traders and explorers.
British statesmen, however, neglected the south-west, though the
islands were annexed at different times between 1861 and 1867, and
Walfisch Bay in 1878. In 1874 the islands were incorporated in the Cape
Colony.
The mainland on the south-west, however, remained an open field as far
as actual occupation went, in spite of its being tacitly acknowledged a
British "sphere of influence."
Until the "scramble for Africa" no one would have regarded with
anything but ridicule the idea that an enormous tract of country,
comprising Great Namaqualand and Damaraland, would have been lost to
Great Britain; yet British statesmen at home, feeling secure in the
country's position, refused to encourage anything but a policy of
gradual absorption.
In 1867 the Home Government was strongly urged by the Government of
the Cape to annex Great Namaqualand and Damaraland, but declined to
undertake the responsibility.
In the following year the residents of the territory, including
numerous German missionaries, urged that the country might be declared
British and be subject to British administration; but the proposal was
met with disfavour.
In the year 1877 that great-minded Imperialist, Sir Bartle Frere, then
Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, advised by the Executive Council
at the Cape, made a strong recommendation that as a first step an
Order in Council should be passed, empowering the Cape Parliament to
legislate for the purpose of annexing the coast up to the Portuguese
boundary; and that in the meanwhile no time should be lost in hoisting
the British flag at Walfisch Bay. This latter step was assented to, and
it was shortly afterwards carried into effect; but Sir Bartle Frere's
larger proposals were negatived.
Sir Bartle Frere subsequently renewed his representations on the
subject, but the Imperial Government continued of opinion that no
action should be taken.[D]
The British Imperial Government was satisfied that there could be no
possible danger in delay, and were disturbed at the unsettled state of
the native territories of the Cape Colony and the recurrence of native
disturbances which have been a prevailing element in the existence of
the Colony.
The Imperial Government finally decided that it was unnecessary to
extend their possessions beyond the then boundaries, that the Orange
River should be maintained as the north-western boundary of the Cape
Colony, and that the Government would give no encouragement to schemes
for the extension of British jurisdiction over Great Namaqualand and
Damaraland.
Up to 1883 the only assent to petitions from the Cape Government, from
residents in Great Namaqualand and Damaraland, and from the natives of
those territories, was for the annexation of the islands off the coast,
and of Walfisch Bay and a very small portion of the country immediately
surrounding it.
The danger of Germany stepping in was never disturbing to the minds of
the British statesmen, and they were merely concerned with weighing the
advantages of embracing the occasion.
German diplomacy had, however, been at work in its insidious way; and
although active operations under Bismarck's policy of forming "Trade
Colonies" were not undertaken by the German Government until well into
1884, the promoters and originators of the German Colonisation Society
had been busy ever since the first conception of the Colonial idea in
Germany.
During the years preceding 1884, indeed, representatives of the Bremen
and Hamburg merchants had made many not unsuccessful efforts to worm
themselves into the trading centres in Southern Africa.
Ambassadors of German commerce set out as pioneers of the new movement,
and as early as August, 1883, the _Standard_ newspaper published a
communication from its special correspondent in Berlin--headed "The
First German Colony"--reporting that a Bremen firm had "acquired" the
Bay of Angra Pequena (Luderitzbucht) on the south-west coast of Africa.
The article proceeds that "the German Press, which was disappointed
by the Reichstag last year (_re_ the Samoa Bill), expresses great
satisfaction at the consent of the German Government to protect the
infant Colony and to allow the German flag to be hoisted over it. The
semi-official _Post_ declares that this is the most practicable kind of
colonisation, because it avoids international difficulties. In spite
of the statement ... that the German Government avoids giving any
encouragement to immigration, the _Post_ is convinced that if Germans
will promote the increase of German manufacturing industry by founding
commercial Colonies, they will not lack the powerful protection of the
Imperial Government."
There the whole of Bismarck's ex-territorial policy lies in a nutshell:
the continued expansion of Germany from within by means of trade with
purely German dominions.
Beyond this the German Government expressed no intention of actually
annexing territory, though it was a straw which showed very clearly the
direction in which the wind set.
It was an inexpedient policy for the Government to proceed to declaring
Protectorates over areas not in actual occupation by other Powers yet
coming within their "spheres of influence," and the subterfuge resorted
to was the establishment of trade centres by merchants who would claim
the protection of the German flag; albeit it could not be seriously
argued that the mere foundation of a trading station could constitute
territorial acquisition in any part of the world where Germany as a
Power had not the least claim.
For many years there had in Germany been advocates of colonisation
schemes with a considerably wider horizon, who had formulated ideas
of expansion and pressed their views upon the German Government and
public. Foremost amongst these was Herr Ernst von Weber, and the
enunciation of his higher ambitions for his country, in a remarkable
article published in 1879, not only attracted considerable attention in
South Africa but induced Sir Bartle Frere again to draw the attention
of the Home Government to the avouched plan for a German Colony in
South Africa.
Herr von Weber in his article pointed to the attractive prospect and
noble ambition by which Englishmen might be inspired to found a new
Empire in the African continent, "possibly more valuable and more
brilliant than even the Indian Empire."
Von Weber argued that it was the duty of Germany to protest against
steps taken by England to realise this ambition; urging in support that
Germans had a peculiar interest in the "Boer" territories--"for here
dwell a splendid race of people nearly allied to us (Germans)."
After going into the history of the Boers, the writer of the article
states quite seriously that the Transvaal Boers had "the most earnest
longing that the German Empire, _which they properly regard as their
parent and mother country_, should take them under its protection."
As a matter of fact, except in Government circles in the coterie of
continental intriguers who surrounded and misled Paul Kruger, the
German is barely tolerated by the Boers, and _vervluchste Deutscher_
(cursed German) is as common a descriptive as _verdomde Rooinek_
(damned Englishman).[E]
In the first place, to the Boers every German is a Jew--a gentleman,
in his mind, associated with a watch with defective parts or a "last
year's ready reckoner."
Next, the Boer, while proud of his ancestry, strongly disclaims any
loyalty to a European Power; and although a Dutch dialect is in almost
universal use, he would indignantly repudiate a suggestion that he is
bound by any ties to Holland, even after he has been fully persuaded of
the actual existence of that country.
The Boer trekkers, besides those of Dutch origin, included the
descendants of many noble French families, and their numbers were
supplemented by English immigrants who were sent out to the eastern
province of the Cape Colony in 1820. Many of these trekked with the
Boers owing to dissatisfaction at being denied political and civil
rights; and of the original 3053 immigrants who landed in 1820, only
438 remained a few years later, on their original grants in the Cape
Colony.
While the Boers protested and fought against annexation by great
Britain, it was merely because of repugnance to restraint and certainly
not out of any love for Germany.
After expatiating on the richness of the mineral resources of the
Transvaal, von Weber points to the possibilities of the country if
Delagoa Bay were acquired.
In spite of claiming the Boers as kindred, however, he shows the
cloven hoof by stating that "a constant mass immigration of Germans
would gradually bring about a decided numerical preponderance of
Germans over the Dutch population, and of itself would by degrees
effect the germanisation of the country in a peaceful manner."
He goes on to recommend that Germany ought "at any price," in order to
forestall England, to get possession of points on both the west and
east coasts of Africa, where factories could be established, branches
of which, properly fortified, could be gradually pushed farther
and farther inland and so by degrees form a wide network of German
settlements.
That these views were not held by Herr von Weber alone in Germany
must have been apparent to our Foreign and Colonial Offices, but the
only steps taken were to ask the British ambassador in Berlin for a
report; and this, when received, assured the Government that the plan
had no prospect of success, because the German Government felt more
the want of soldiers than of Colonies, and consequently discouraged
emigration--while the German Government's disinclination to acquire
distant dependencies had been marked in the rejection of the Samoa Bill.
The possibility of a reversal of feeling did not occur to anyone
apparently, and the British Government was therefore quite satisfied
that "the plan had no prospect of success"; and having intimated the
same to Sir Bartle Frere, abandoned interest in the matter.
To the Prussian militarist section in Germany Ernst von Weber's
exhortation irresistibly appealed. A glance at the map of South
Africa will show how feasible it was for Germany not only to curtail
the expansion of British territory from the south, but to secure the
dominion of the greater part of the continent for Germany.
It was a great ideal and came near to consummation by insidious working
of German Government agents, bountifully assisted in their object by
the vacillation and indifference of the British Colonial and Foreign
Offices.
In the south-west was a huge area of which no actual annexation had
been proclaimed, yet to the mind of our statesmen amply secured by
being understood to be within the "sphere of British influence."
Between it and the Transvaal Republic lay another unprotected area
stretching across the Kalahari so-called "desert" and including
Bechuanaland, the happy hunting-ground of missionaries and Matabele
raiders. South-east of the Transvaal, stretching to the coast, was
another unoccupied region comprising Tongaland and part of Zululand,
with an excellent harbour on the east coast at St Lucia Bay.
Give any Power Great Namaqualand and Damaraland on the west coast,
add Bechuanaland in the interior and a working agreement with the
Transvaal Republic with access to the east coast at St Lucia Bay, then
the Cape Colony was shut in by very circumscribed borders for ever from
her Hinterland; while a dream of "Africa all Red" was smothered in its
genesis, and its record filed away for future reference in the archives
of the might have been.
But a belt across the southern portion of the continent did not
comprise the sum-total of the Prussian ambition. There was an enormous
and fabulously rich extent of country stretching up to and beyond
the Zambezi, occupied only by marauding savages under the rule of Lo
Bengula, King of the Amandebele--and now known as Rhodesia.
With a distinct vision of the prize offering, the German set out with
the mailed fist wrapped in cotton wool to stalk his prey delicately.
In 1883 while German traders were busy establishing a footing in Great
Namaqualand and Damaraland, diplomacy and intrigue had been at work
in the Transvaal. The Boer Government had concluded an agreement with
the Portuguese whereby they obtained an outlet to the east coast by a
railway to Delagoa Bay, and the Boers had begun to occupy portions of
Bechuanaland, separating the Transvaal and Namaqualand.
Boer Republics were proclaimed over the territories of several Bechuana
chiefs, and overtures were made by German emissaries from the Transvaal
to Lo Bengula for a concession over the territory under his sway.
[Illustration: SOUTH AFRICA IN 1883.
Showing the Transcontinental belt with which Germany
hoped to shut in Cape Colony and prevent northern
expansion.]
Tongaland and a portion of the Zululand coast, including St Lucia
Bay, was under the subjection of Dinizulu, who had succeeded Cetywayo
as King of Zululand, and with him negotiations were entered into,
the ultimate end of which was to be the cession to Germany (or the
Transvaal) of a portion of the sea-board.
The British Government can hardly really be blamed for not pursuing
in 1883 a vigorous policy of annexation in Southern Africa, for in
1879 there had been general native disturbances--including a costly
war with the Zulus, with its memorable disaster to the British arms at
Isandhlwana and the deplorable death of Prince Victor Napoleon. In 1881
we were defeated by the Boers at Laings Nek and Majuba, the little war
ending with a retirement quite the reverse of graceful; in 1882 Egypt
was in a foment, and although Sir Garnet Wolseley destroyed Ahmed Arabi
at Tel-el-Kebir, the Sudan was still overrun by frenzied fanatics.
The dilatoriness of the Imperial Government, however, is inexcusable in
view of the importance of the issue at stake, which was the overthrow
of British supremacy in South Africa in favour of Germany.
Fortunately for us, there were at the Cape imperially minded statesmen
who were fully alive to the danger threatening Great Britain: Sir
Bartle Frere, Cecil Rhodes, Sir Thomas Upington, and John X. Merriman;
and these continually pressed their views upon the Home Government,
while Rhodes, who had formulated his own ideas as to the destiny of the
sub-continent, set himself to employ his bounteous talents of mental
and physical energy to the due accomplishment of a purpose which he
made his life's aim.
Fortunately he had at his private command the financial resources
indispensable to the consummation of his ideals; for if he had had to
rely upon the Home Government for that support, his ambition stood
little hope of realisation.
The German hope of obtaining sway over Bechuanaland through the Boers
was frustrated by vigorous action on the part of the Cape statesmen.
Their protests, and especially the individual efforts of Rhodes,
stirred the Home Government into saving for the Empire the territory
which the freebooters from the Transvaal had seized upon in the name of
their Republic.
Rhodes personally, on behalf of the Cape Government, conducted
negotiations with the Boers, but it was not until 1885 that a
successful issue was arrived at after a show of force by the Home
Government in the expedition of Sir Charles Warren.
The danger of the Cape Colony being cut off from the north through
Bechuanaland was obviated, but a large field for German enterprise
still lay open.
Their attempts to acquire a footing in Matabeleland were frustrated,
and the delegates who set out from the Transvaal in search of a
concession from Lo Bengula were unsuccessful in their mission to secure
for Germany sway over the countries that now comprise Rhodesia.
For decades British private enterprise had been busy on the coast of
Great Namaqualand and Damaraland; in fact in 1863 a British firm (De
Pass, Spence & Co.) had purchased from the native chiefs a large tract
round about Angra Pequena, and worked the huge deposits of guano on the
Ichaboe group of islands, some of which are less than a mile off the
mainland.
Disputes were constant up to 1884 between British and German traders;
continuous appeals were made for British annexation of the territory
from the Orange River to the Portuguese border, but the Government
could not be induced to do anything more towards acceding to Sir Bartle
Frere's urgent representations than to declare Walfisch Bay, with some
fifteen miles around it, to be British territory.
In 1882 a German, Herr Luderitz, the representative in South Africa
of the Hamburg and Bremen merchants who pulled the strings of the
Government through the German Colonisation Society, established a
trading station at Angra Pequena and commenced, in accordance with
the preconceived plan of "conquest," to extend the operations of his
business inland by founding trade stations at suitable centres.
The British traders soon began to make representations to the Cape
Government owing to Luderitz exercising rights of proprietorship over a
large portion of territory which he claimed to own by purchase, and to
his levying import duty charges upon goods landed by other traders.
Another cause of complaint was that Luderitz was importing large
quantities of arms and ammunition and supplying them to the natives by
way of barter.
The German wedge having been insidiously inserted into South West
Africa, the propitious moment seemed to have arrived in 1884 for
Germany to acquire territorial possession of South West Africa.
Representations were accordingly made by the German to the British
Government, pointing out that German subjects had substantial interests
in and about Angra Pequena in need of protection, and inquiring whether
the British were prepared to extend protection to the German industries
and subjects north of the Orange River, which British statesmen seemed
to have stubbornly determined should remain the boundary of the Cape
Colony.
The Governor of the Cape had, indeed, been clearly and distinctly
given to understand that, except as regards Walfisch Bay, the Home
Government would lend no encouragement to the establishment of British
jurisdiction in Great Namaqualand and Damaraland north of the Orange
River.
Bismarck's application to Lord Granville, therefore, placed the latter
in an awkward predicament, inasmuch as he intimated that if Great
Britain were not agreeable to providing protection for the lives and
properties of German subjects, the German Government would do its best
to extend to it the same measure of protection which they gave to their
subjects in other remote places.
Bismarck took care, however, to impress upon the British Foreign
Office that in any action the German Government might take there was
no underlying design to establish a territorial footing in South
Africa. He disclaimed any intention other than to obtain protection for
the property of German subjects; and this assurance was complacently
accepted as a complete reply to the representations of the Cape
statesmen.
The Home Government seem, at the same time, to have understood at the
beginning of 1884 that the choice lay before them of formally annexing
South West Africa from the Orange River north to the Portuguese border,
or acquiescing in a German annexation.
With almost criminal procrastination, however, they deferred replying
to the German inquiry, deeming it necessary to communicate with the
Government of the Cape Colony and invite that Government, in the event
of South West Africa being declared to be under British jurisdiction,
to undertake the responsibility and cost of the administration of the
territory.
Lord Granville, moreover, temporised by informing Bismarck that
the Cape Colonial Government had certain establishments along the
south-western coasts, and that he would obtain a report from the Cape,
as it was not possible without more precise information to form any
opinion as to whether the British authorities would have it in their
power to give the protection asked for in case of need.
This answer Bismarck probably expected and welcomed, as it left him
free to proceed with his own arrangements, while the British Foreign
Office pigeonholed the subject until the matter might be reopened.
In the beginning of 1883, owing to representations from British firms
interested in South West Africa as to German activity in that part, the
British Foreign Office obtained a report from their Chargé d'Affaires
in Berlin, and were again lulled into complaisant inactivity by being
assured that the amount of "protection" intended to be afforded by the
German Government to Luderitz's "commercial Colony" was precisely what
would be granted to any other subject of the Empire who had settled
abroad and acquired property.
It would be a mistake, the Foreign Office was notified, to suppose that
the German Government had any intention of establishing crown Colonies
or of assuming a Protectorate over a territory acquired by a traveller
or explorer.
In September the German inquiries of the Foreign Office assumed a more
pertinent nature, and to the uncultured mind would carry an alarming
significance.
The British Foreign Office was asked "quite unofficially" and for
the private information of the German Government, whether Great
Britain claimed suzerainty rights over Angra Pequena and the adjacent
territory; and if so, to explain upon what grounds the claim was based.
This necessitated another reference to the Cape of Good Hope; but in
the meantime a party of English traders, disgusted at the delay at home
in annexing the south-west coast, resolved to take action on their own
account, and set off for Angra Pequena with the fixed determination--of
which they gave the Government due notice--of expelling the Germans.
Instructions were immediately sent out for a gunboat to proceed to the
spot to prevent a collision between the British and Germans, as the
whole question of jurisdiction was still the "subject of inquiry."
H.M.S. _Boadicea_ proceeded on instructions to Angra Pequena, and her
Commander was able to report, on her return to Simon's Bay on the Cape
station, that no collision had taken place.
In November, 1883, the British Foreign Office intimated to the
German Government that a report on South West Africa was in course of
preparation, but that while British sovereignty had not been proclaimed
excepting over Walfisch Bay and the islands, the Government considered
that any claim to sovereignty or jurisdiction by a foreign Power
between the Portuguese border and the frontier of the Cape Colony (the
Orange River) would infringe Great Britain's legitimate rights.
Early in 1884 the German Government, in a dispatch to the British
Foreign Office, pointed out that the fact that British sovereignty had
not been proclaimed over South West Africa permitted of doubt as to
the legal claim of the British Government, as well as to the practical
application of the same; the German Government having clearly in mind
the avowal of a fixed intention on the part of the British Government
not to extend jurisdiction over the coast territory excepting in so far
as Walfisch Bay and the islands were concerned.
The dispatch argued that events had shown that the British Government
did not claim sovereignty in the territory, but as a matter of fact the
Government had emphatically declined to assume that responsibility.
The German dispatch concluded by asking our Government for a statement
of the title upon which any claim for sovereignty over the territory
was based, and what provision existed for securing legal protection for
German subjects in their commercial enterprises and property, in order
that the German Government might be relieved of the duty of providing
direct protection for its subjects in that territory.
Here, again, was a deprecation on the part of Germany of any other
ambition than to secure protection for life and property of German
subjects.
Lord Derby, Secretary of State for the Colonies, was aware of the
possibility of Germany assuming jurisdiction over Angra Pequena in the
absence of an assurance that the British Government was prepared to
undertake the protection of German subjects; but the British Government
shrank from the idea of annexing the territory, and endeavoured to
saddle the Cape Government with the responsibility of giving the
undertaking asked for by Germany.
The Cape Government was in no position to assume such a responsibility,
though they did not hesitate to offer to do so as soon as a cabinet
meeting could be called to decide on the matter--but when it was too
late.
On the 30th January, 1884, the Cape Government, in a minute signed by
John X. Merriman, recommended the annexation to the British Empire of
the whole of Great Namaqualand and Damaraland from the Orange River to
the Portuguese border, the interests of the Cape Colony being chiefly
in the arming of natives by gun-running through the port at Angra
Pequena.
Official and private notifications were sent to the British Foreign
Offices of the intention of Germany to take over the suzerainty of
South West Africa in defiance of Great Britain's claims; but our
Government, fondly embracing the idea that Germany had no intention of
acquiring the territory but was only solicitous for legal protection
of private property, still declined to act until the Cape Government
expressed their readiness to accept the responsibility and cost.
On the 24th April, 1884, the day which has recently been described in
German publications as "the Birthday of the German Colonial Empire,"
Bismarck telegraphed to the German Consul at Cape Town as follows:
"According to statements of Mr Luderitz, Colonial authorities doubt
as to his acquisitions north of Orange River being entitled to German
protection. You will declare officially that he and his establishments
are under protection of the Empire."
This meant the annexation to Germany of the whole territory; but
communications continued between the Home and the Cape Colonial
Governments.
In the Reichstag on the 23rd June, 1884, Bismarck showed his hand for
the first time; and on the point of infringement of Great Britain's
"legitimate rights," stated that no such infringement could be
pleaded inasmuch as in English official documents the Orange River had
repeatedly been declared to be the north-western border of the Cape
Colony.
Bismarck further announced that it was the intention of the Government
to afford the Empire's protection to any "settlements" similar to that
of Luderitz which might be established by Germans. He added in his
address to the Reichstag that "if the question were asked what means
the Empire had to afford effective protection to German enterprises in
distant parts, the first consideration would be the influence of the
Empire and the wish and interests of other Powers to remain in friendly
relations with it."
There was nothing left but for our Government to bow at the triumph
of superior diplomacy, and the position was accepted with a good
grace--Lord Granville declaring that in view of the definitions which
had been publicly given by the British Government of the limits of Cape
Colony, the claim of the German Government could not be contested, and
that the British Government was therefore prepared to recognise the
rights of the Germans.
There were some very violent expressions of opinion on the part of
Britishers who had vested interests in this, the first of Germany's
Colonies, for there were many private rights concerned, and it was
decided that an Anglo-German Commission should be appointed to inquire
into and settle all conflicting claims; but it is not of record that,
excepting in regard to the islands, the decisions of the Commission
were in favour of the British traders who had for many years been
established along the coast of South West Africa.
The result of Luderitz's enterprise, supported by Prussian diplomacy,
was, therefore, that the German flag waved over the whole extent of
South West Africa from the Orange River to the border of Portuguese
Angola, and Angra Pequena assumed the responsibility of the name
"Luderitzbucht."
In the meantime Herr Luderitz had established his trading stations at
St Lucia Bay on the coast of Zululand, and proceeded to repeat the
stratagem he had followed in Angra Pequena by founding trade stations
at points inland while he opened negotiations with Dinizulu.
The annexation of South West Africa had, however, caused the British
Government to throw off some of their lethargy, and a British warship
was dispatched to St Lucia Bay, over which, by virtue of a treaty made
with the Zulu King Panda some forty years previously, the British flag
was hoisted on the 18th December, 1884.
Danger of the Cape being cut off from the north was, however, still
extant in Bechuanaland, where the Boers had annexed the territories
known as Stellaland, Goshen, and Rooigrond; but this was eventually
saved to Great Britain by vigorous individual action on the part
of Cecil Rhodes, who had himself appointed a Commissioner to visit
Bechuanaland, where he strenuously opposed the claims of the Transvaal
Republic.
These claims were, however, only withdrawn in the following year after
an expedition under Sir Charles Warren had proceeded to the disputed
areas and persuaded the Boers that Great Britain was this time in real
and eager earnest.
Bechuanaland became a British "Protectorate," and the well-laid scheme
for a German transcontinental Empire was frustrated.
The boundaries of the territory brought under German sway in South
West Africa were defined by what is known as the Caprivi Treaty of
the 1st July, 1890, between Germany and Great Britain, and by an
agreement between Germany and Portugal. Under the terms of the latter
the northern boundary of German South West Africa, between that Colony
and Portuguese Angola, was fixed at the Cunene River; while under the
Caprivi Treaty the boundary between the Cape Colony and German South
West Africa was declared to be the Orange River.
Great Britain retained Walfisch Bay, which became a "district" of the
Cape Colony and was placed under the Colonial administration in 1884,
and also kept the territory round Lake 'Ngami in northern Bechuanaland.
The lake district was neglected, however, until Cecil Rhodes, fearing
the loss of more territory unless it was beneficially occupied, sent,
at his own expense, an expedition of Boer trekkers to settle on the
land.
Article III of the Caprivi Treaty was an important one, for thereunder
it was provided that Germany should "have free access from her
Protectorate (South West Africa) to the Zambezi River by a strip which
shall at no point be less than twenty English miles in width."
The acquisition by Germany of South West Africa was of great
strategical importance, enabling them to establish in time a system of
communication by wireless telegraphy which covered the whole continent.
In Togoland on the west coast the most powerful wireless apparatus in
the world was installed, and this was in touch both by wireless and
cable with Berlin.
The Togoland station was also in touch with the wireless installation
at Windhoek, the capital of German South West Africa, and with
Dar-es-Salaam, the German port on the east coast opposite Zanzibar.
It is a matter for congratulation, but not on the statesmanship
displayed by British ministers, that the fruit of the German essay at
the establishment of a "new Empire" in Southern Africa was no more than
the annexation of South West Africa, for it is by no means unthinkable
that there was a possibility that in addition to the south-west the
Germans might have drawn a wide belt right across the continent from
west to east, taking in Bechuanaland, the Transvaal, Tongaland, and
that portion of Zululand giving the Transvaal an outlet to the east
coast at St Lucia Bay.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATING GERMANY'S WIRELESS SYSTEM EMBRACING
AFRICA.]
The territory hitherto known as German South West Africa covers an area
of nearly 323,000 square miles, and has a coastline of 930 miles from
the mouth of the Orange River, which separates it from the Cape Colony
in the south, to the mouth of the Cunene River, which divides the
territory from Portuguese Angola in the north. The southern boundary
runs along the Orange River into the interior for some 300 miles.
The German population is stated to be about 15,000, and the natives are
estimated at 200,000; but this latter is probably a high calculation,
in view of the number who have fled into Bechuanaland and Cape Colony
to escape from German tyranny.
One of the first acts of the German Government after their annexation
of Damaraland and Great Namaqualand was to declare the claims of
British concessionaires invalid.
The "rights" of Herr Luderitz were taken over by a chartered company,
incorporated by the Government, which set itself to investigate the
resources of the country.
The islands off the coast remained British, and there the huge deposits
of guano have been worked for years.
A form of military government was established, who proceeded to impress
the natives with the might of Germany; but the Hereros who occupied
Damaraland never acknowledged even a German suzerainty, and in 1904 a
"rebellion" broke out.
Utterly unaccustomed as they were to warfare of the description they
were now called upon to undertake, the Germans found great difficulty
in dealing with the "Hottentots," as the natives were termed; and the
German effort to destroy the whole tribe involved the employment of
9,000 regular troops and an expenditure of £ 20,000,000.
The Herero War was carried on for nearly three years, and in 1907
was brought to an end by Major Elliott of the Cape Police; for the
principal Herero chiefs crossed the borders of the Cape Colony, where
they were routed by Major Elliott's force of police and their leaders
captured. They were detained for a time by the Cape Government, and
finally handed over to the German authorities, by whom they were
executed.
Major Elliott was thanked and duly decorated by the Kaiser.
The Germans did not find tribes of natives on whose industry they could
batten, and the inhabitants of Great Namaqualand and Damaraland were
really unpromising material for such a purpose, not being pure-bred
distinctive tribes, but bastard races with a strong admixture of
half-castes.
For decades the territory had been the refuge of criminals and cattle
thieves, who had fled from the Cape Colony, after raiding the Bechuana
cattle kraals.
A great deal of the coast and part of the southern portion of the
Colony is little else than an arid, waterless waste; in fact the
rainfall in parts has been known to be half an inch in two years.
Even at Walfisch Bay there is no fresh water to speak of, and for years
water for all purposes was brought up the coast by steamers. It is a
condition prevailing all along the coast, for even at Port Nolloth
in Lesser Namaqualand, south of the Orange River, the inhabitants
depend upon water condensed by the sea fogs and dripped from the roofs
into tanks, which are by the way kept locked to prevent theft of the
precious liquid.
Powerful condensers have, however, for some time been used at various
points on the coast to provide fresh water, and this is retailed at a
high price.
The Kalahari Desert stretches over the border of the Cape Colony and
into Bechuanaland, and contains no surface water; although good results
have been obtained by drilling to comparatively shallow depths, and the
sandy soil proved highly productive on irrigation.
The desert itself was occupied by nomad bushmen armed with bows and
arrows poisoned by being laid in putrid human flesh, and who kept
secret the places where they obtained water. Many of these are pools
hidden beneath the earth's surface and from which the water can only be
drawn up through a narrow channel by suction through a bamboo reed.
A good substitute for water is found in the wild melons which grow
in patches in the driest parts of the Kalahari, and on these police
patrols in Bechuanaland have often to rely for water for themselves and
animals.
The arid zone is limited, however, and towards the north-east the land
gradually rises to an elevated tableland, possessing a dry and one of
the most perfect climates in the world.
Approaching Angola again farther north the country becomes almost
tropical.
The majority of the veld is of the karoo type, covered with the
remarkable karoo bush on the leafless twigs of which sheep thrive and
fatten. The salt bush, similar to that valued in Australia for sheep,
is found in abundance, but towards the north and coming under the
influence of a rainfall the land, while there is no marked geological
difference, produces grass instead of the salt bush, and there are
belts of rich grass country as fine as any to be found in Southern
Africa.
Damaraland is in reality one of the finest cattle countries in Africa,
while nearly the whole country is suitable for sheep and goats. With
energetic development there is a big future for it as a producer of
hides, wool, and mohair.
Horses do well in many parts of South West Africa; in fact in
Namaqualand, along the Orange River, a breed of hardy ponies exists in
a semi-wild state. In the drier parts camels are extensively used both
by British and German patrols.
The most waterless area near the coast produces a shrub known by the
Boers as _melk bosch_ (milk-bush), which carries a plentiful supply of
a milky sap which has been manufactured into a fair quality of rubber;
but the difficulty of its collection militates against the prospects of
its development into a prosperous industry.
The number of head of cattle, the property of the natives but
transferred to the Germans by conquest, was, in 1913, estimated at
240,000, wool-bearing sheep 660,000, and other sheep, including
Persians, at over 500,000. There were approximately the same number of
goats, 20,000 horses, and 3000 ostriches.
In the northerly portion, suitable for agriculture, this was carried on
by natives; but their land was confiscated by the Germans, and, as Dr
Bönn stated in a reading upon the Colony, "the framework of society is
European; very little land is in the hands of natives."
The land was parcelled out into farms and allocated to companies and
Boer settlers, the average size of a farm being about 28,000 acres.
Ostriches are found in many parts in a wild state, and a great number
have been domesticated; but the German traders preferred as a rule to
rely for their supply of feathers upon the plumes of wild birds killed
by the bushmen of the Kalahari.
Of other industries mention might be made of the collection, besides
guano, of penguin eggs and seal skins on the islands off the coast,
while a few degrees north whalers, operating from Port Alexander, last
year accounted for some 3000 whales.
As at the Cape of Good Hope, the whales met with are of the less
valuable "hump-backed" variety, but an occasional "right" or sperm
whale is captured.
Of ordinary trade there was practically none, as the natives had little
or nothing to give in exchange for imported goods; and as for the Boer
settler, beyond a little coffee and sugar, he has learned to rely only
upon the resources of his farm for his requirement. The natives' only
asset of value to the German, his labour, he was not disposed to trade
in.
Investigation has revealed the existence of mountains of marble, varied
in colour and of a quality equal to Carara; while enormous deposits of
gypsum exist.
The whole country is highly mineralised. Silver first attracted
the attention of prospectors but has never been found in payable
quantities, although large veins of galena have been traced.
The development of the mineral resources is almost entirely British,
and Johannesburg financiers have opened up copper and gold mines.
Enormous deposits of haematite iron and asbestos are known to exist,
but so far have not been worked.
Copper, gold, silver, tin, and lead have been worked profitably; but
the principal mining industry is diamond washing, and this is mainly in
Government hands.
No mine or pipe has been discovered, but the diamonds are found in
the loose sand on the foreshore under conditions similar to those
prevailing at Diamantina in Brazil.
The diamonds are "dolleyed," and picked out by natives under
supervision; but there are a few individual diggers upon whose net
production the Government levied a tax.
The output of diamonds in 1913 was valued at £3,000,000, the stones
being disposed of under State agency, who occupy the same relative
position to the industry as the De Beers Diamond Buying Syndicate to
the Kimberley mines.
Diamonds and their concomitants such as olivine, rubies, garnets, etc.,
have also been discovered on the islands, and in 1906 the discovery of
a true pipe was reported on Plum Pudding Island.
A syndicate was formed in England, and an expedition, fitted out with
great secrecy, was sent out in the S.S. _Xema_; but on arriving at Plum
Pudding Island they not only discovered that a tug, dispatched by a
Cape Town firm, had visited the island and claimed discoverers' rights,
but that by order of the Cape Government no landing was permitted for
fear of disturbing the sea-birds, on whom the guano industry depended.
The capital of South West Africa was established at Windhoek, 235 miles
inland, and here a large five-tower wireless station was built, which
could under the most favourable conditions communicate direct with
Berlin, but was otherwise in touch via Togoland.
Windhoek is connected by a railway line with the coast at Swakopmund at
the mouth of the Swakop River close to Walfisch Bay, and 1318 miles of
railways have been built.
The Administration has laid down a network of roads and telephones,
which presents a contrast to some of our Colonies where the means of
communication are extremely difficult, but points at the same time to
expensive administration.
Signposts are placed everywhere in the country, indicating the
direction of water or villages.
While Luderitzbucht is a fine harbour, the lack of fresh water made the
Germans select Swakopmund as the principal point on the coast, although
it possesses an open roadstead and a heavy sandy bar.
From Swakopmund the principal railway through Windhoek links up with
the line from Luderitzbucht at Keetmanshoop, and the lines, as in other
German Colonies, strike significantly towards British borders.
The Caprivi strip, running into northern Rhodesia, and presented
to Germany under the agreement of 1890--which the newspaper _South
Africa_ termed "a most iniquitous one"--was of great importance to
Germany's aspirations in the interior, inasmuch as Germany aimed at the
construction of a German line over German territory to connect with the
Rhodesian Trans-African line near the Zambezi. The strip indeed abuts
for about 100 miles on the Zambezi.
No effort has been made to develop it, and under a heavy penalty no one
was allowed to enter the strip.
A line such as that under contemplation by the Germans is, however, now
in course of construction from Lobito Bay (Benguella) in Portuguese
territory.
The only real settlers in South West Africa are Boers who trekked from
the Transvaal and Cape Colony. It has been said that where you find
Boers you may be sure to find the pick of the farming land, and the
Boer farms are widely scattered over Damaraland.
The German system, however, was not likely to appeal to such spirits of
independence as the Boers, especially when the Germans meted out to
those Boers whom they employed as transport-riders during the Herero
campaign, the same treatment as to the natives, and in some cases had
Boers tied up to wagon wheels and flogged for minor offences.
Taken in all, the Colony is one the development of which has been
carried on on strategical rather than commercial lines; but it is a
territory of vast possibilities as a pastoral land, and as there is at
present all over the world a shortage of meat, likely to intensify,
the holder of a vast extent of country suitable for raising cattle
possesses a most valuable asset.
There cannot be the least doubt that in common with the rest of
Germany, South West Africa had for some time been preparing for the
anticipated inevitable war with Great Britain, and a much larger number
of German troops were held in the Colony than any fear of a possible
native disturbance warranted.
The German forces were estimated at no less than 15,000, with at least
30 batteries of guns.
A plan had, as events have subsequently revealed, been laid for the
invasion of the South African Union, which was to be overrun with the
assistance of the Boers--on whose co-operation the Germans were fatuous
enough to imagine they could count.
Holding their own Colonies by terrorism, they held an utterly false
conception of the relation of our Colonies to the mother country.
The Germans in South West Africa, at the outbreak of the war, had
succeeded in bribing and corrupting an ex-Boer General, Maritz, and
issued a circular to the Boer farmers on the border, calling upon them
"to free themselves from English dominion so long and unwillingly
borne," and to exchange the British "yoke" for the German shackles.
They forgot that the weight of the "yoke" was never felt.
On the declaration of war, a section of the Boers preached neutrality
on the part of the Union, but the Boer leaders themselves denounced
this doctrine as craven and pitiful.
While "a systematic German propaganda deliberately attempted to
poison the integrity of a section of the people," to quote Mr John X.
Merriman, the Germans found in the Union Premier, General Louis Botha,
that, to the German mind, incomprehensible being, a man imbued with
the sense of the very highest integrity and honour, in whose nature it
was impossible to contemplate a breach of faith or to regard a treaty
bearing his signature as a "scrap of paper."
The Germans found to their intense surprise Briton and Boer united,
while the Union was swept by a wave of intense patriotism, revealed
in the promise and offer of loyal support to General Botha by every
section of the varied comities.
From natives, Cape "Boys," and Malays alike came assurances of their
intense loyalty, with offers of help; while the native contributions in
cattle swelled the relief funds.
Prior to the knowledge of Maritz's defection, General Botha had only
mobilised a few thousand men for defence purposes; but on his assurance
that the Union was able to undertake its own defence, the Imperial
Government was enabled to remove the garrisons of regulars for service
on the continent.
This was possibly regarded by the Germans as a ruse on General Botha's
part to get rid of the British garrisons; and a few days after when a
state of war existed between Great Britain and Germany, the Germans on
the Orange River assumed the offensive.
At Nakob a garrison of five South African Mounted Rifles was attacked
by 250 Germans with three maxims, but nevertheless gave a good account
of themselves.
The traitor Maritz held an important command under the Union on the
Orange River, and on 1st October, doubtless through his treachery, two
squadrons of the South African Mounted Rifles and a section of the
Transvaal Horse Artillery were led into a trap at Sandfontein, where
they were attacked by 2000 Germans with ten guns--and overwhelmed.
The place was a veritable death-trap, being one of the waterholes
surrounded by kopjes; and the Germans adopted the method employed
against themselves by the Hereros, who waited until their enemies had
encamped at a waterhole and then attacked from the kopjes.
On the 13th October Maritz threw off his mask and broke into open
rebellion. He was, however, easily dealt with by his late comrades, and
fled across the border.
Operations in this theatre are of course extremely difficult, owing to
the lack of water and the impossibility of moving large bodies of men
across waterless tracks in order to attack an enemy who is ensconced
about the only available source of water.
The principal advance, therefore, against the Germans in South West
Africa was by way of Luderitzbucht and Swakopmund.
The rebellion of Maritz was followed later by the defection of two
distinguished ex-Boer Generals: Beyers in the Transvaal and de Wet
in the Orange Free State. But they seem to have been actuated in
prostituting their otherwise unsullied careers by jealousy and petty
spite against General Botha personally, and not animated by any
anxiety to come under German dominion--though de Wet's principal
grievance against the British Government appeared to be that an English
magistrate had fined him five shillings for assaulting a native, and
that instead of admonishing the native the magistrate had "looked at
him as if he wanted to kiss him."
Upon the outbreak of ex-Generals de Wet and Beyers, supported by the
rag-tag and bobtail of the more ignorant Boers, General Botha ordered
a further mobilisation in the Union, and decided to take the field in
person, being the first Premier of a British dominion to do so at the
head of his own troops.
He immediately proceeded against Beyers, and the latter was defeated
and fled, subsequently meeting his death by drowning in the Vaal River.
General Botha then turned his attention to de Wet, who with a partially
armed force had commenced blowing up railway lines and destroying
bridges, and after a prolonged chase de Wet was captured and the
pitiful rebellion ended.
The Union troops, under the command of Colonel Beves, arrived off
Luderitzbucht on 19th September, and were landed by tugs without
opposition.
A party of the South African Railway Engineers took charge of the
electric power station, telephone and condensing plant. The town was
searched for arms, and a large quantity unearthed; but there was not
the slightest injury to any person or property.
A special party was landed under a flag of truce to demand the
surrender of the town; and having returned with the principal German
officials as hostages, the official entry was made by Colonel Beves,
and the Union Jack was hoisted over the town hall.
The Germans had retired to the capital at Windhoek, where they were
said to have three years' provisions and stores, and had removed from
Luderitzbucht all railway rolling stock, but had damaged no property.
Colonel Beves issued a proclamation formally annexing the town, and
providing for the security of life and property.
Prisoners of war and non-combatants were sent off to Cape Town. The
latter included a number of Cape "Boys" who had been paid their wages
in German _goodfors_; and these expressed their delight at the British
occupation. The _goodfors_ were cashed by Cape Town merchants for the
"Boys," and were passed on in payment of amounts claimed from them by
German subjects.
The occupation was conducted in the most orderly manner, and the late
German residents of Luderitzbucht were loud in their expressions of
appreciation of the consideration with which they were treated.
The Caprivi strip was entered by a force of police from Rhodesia, and
within a few days Schuckmannsburg, near the Zambezi River, surrendered
to them--and so a very unsightly intrusion into Rhodesian territory was
wiped off the map.