Speaking on July 14, A. Bonar Law, British Colonial Secretary,
announced that the Entente Allies have already occupied 450,000 square
miles of German colonial possessions. Add Turkish possessions in Asia
in the hands of the Entente powers, and the total reaches 500,000
square miles.
Two outstanding facts are that this transfer, if permanent, will
change the destiny of all Africa and Asia, and that, for the first
time in history, the oversea dominions of Britain have initiated and
carried on wars of conquest, Australia and New Zealand, in union,
having already taken 100,000 square miles of German colonies in the
Pacific; while the Union of South Africa has conquered German
Southwest Africa.
In other parts of Africa, France and Belgium are co-operating with
English imperial forces, while in East Africa and on the Persian Gulf
the brunt of the fighting is being borne by British Indian troops and
troops provided by the Princes of India. The movement now in progress
will, if completed, give the Entente powers the whole of Africa; will
give Britain all Southern Asia, from the Mount Sinai peninsula to
Siam; and will, in all probability, make the Entente powers heirs of
the whole Eastern Hemisphere.
These immense territories are the ultimate stakes of the battles in
France, in Poland, on the Dardanelles. We lose sight of them, perhaps,
in the details of local fighting. In reality, nothing less is being
effected than the re-mapping of the whole eastern hemisphere.