OUR WAR IN EAST AFRICA

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2632, 30 November 1915, Page 4

OUR WAR IN EAST AFRICA

PROTECTING THE UGANDA RAILWAY

PROGRESS OF THE BRITISH

(From the "Morning 'Post.")'j ' The cabled information regarding the British operations against the Germans in East Africa has been ho scrappy and spasmodic tliat the following review should bo 01" value, to students of the world war.

The East Afrioa Protectorate; ..-Where operations are proceeding, extends from the. Umba to the Jul)a Rivey, and inland ns far as tho borders of "Uganda. It includes certain mainland dominions of the Sultan of Zanzibar, viz., a strip extending 10 miles inland along ih6 coast from the German frontier to ICipini, the island of the Lamu Archipelago, -'and an area of 10 milesTOund the port of Kis- ; mayu, these territories having been leased to.Great Britain for an annual rent of £17,000. The official records show that the;original concession.was mado.to _a

company, subsequently called the Imperial British East Africa. Company,-but tho territory TOS'transfeiTed in 1895 to Her Majesty's Government, and tho -whole Protectorate is placed under the control of a Commissioner and 7 Commander-in-

Chief.:'lt was transferred on April 1, 1905, from:-the authority of the Foreign Office to that of the Colonial Office. The / frontiers havo been defined: by Agreements with Germany (1890 and 1893), and Italy (1891).. The. Protectorate consists of seven provinces and has an area ■ of about 200,000 The total , jKpnlation is' estimated at 2,000;000, including 2-5,000 Asiatics and 2000 Europeans and Eurasians.. On the coast the Arabs .and Swahilis predominate; further inland are races speaking Bantu languages; and,non-Bantu tribes, such.as the Somalis, and the Gallas. Mombasa is the largest town, and also' the capital of the whole Protectorate; the inhabitants number about 25,000. It Is situ'ated on an island' of . the same hamo,. possessing two fine harbours, one at Mombasa itself and the,other, at KilIndini, tho latter having a pier connected with tho Uganda railway. The. second largest, and perhaps, the most important, town l in the Protectorate is Nairobi, the capital of the Ukamba Province, and the central station on- the Uganda railway] |The inhabitants number 7000,, of. whom ;600 are Eui;opeans or Eurasians . and 1600 Indians:' .

t • The Uganda Railway.The' British 'Protectorate over Uganda Was, proclaimed on June 19, 1894, in succession.; to a brief administration by the Imperial British East Africa Company.* The, Protectorate was further extended ovef; Uriyoro and; Busoga; on" July ; 3, ' 1896; By numerous subsequent treaties .concluded by various officers in the ser- , vice !of'the Protectorate the Britisli ad- : \-j ministration lias spread still further over -countries adjoining 'the; Kingdom of Uganda proper, and the boundaries of the Protectorate may npw.be set forth more or less as the east the .Uganda Protectorate is bounded by British East Africa as far north as the 6th of north latitude and as far south as the Anglo-German boundary; ; on the south, "by the. Anglo-German ; i boundary ' and .by the,. Ist degree of south latitude,; on the west by the frontier of the Congo, Free Stat©;, and on the north by an; undetermined line between Ljido on the Nile and ' the watershed of Lake Rudolph Voh tlie north," in fact, it is conterminous .with tho;;soiitliww'd;extCTsion of the Egypiion.': Siidan.' For administrative purposes ..the Protectorate is divided into live provinces. Uganda is separated by abouti 800 miles from the east coast of the north-easternmost extremity : of the Victoria. Nyahza '-is '-riot more than.sßo miles... Over this.stretch ■ of.country,,ali of which lies within tlio British East Africa Protectorate, trans-port-was formerly exceedingly difficulty owing to the paucity of'inhabitants to act as -porters, and stretches of country 'unhealthy for beasts of burden. . Consequently tfte Imperial Government i resolved in 1895 to construct a railway from Mombasa to the north-east, corner. ; l .of the; Victoria Nyainza. This railway, ; at. the end of 1901, had reached and descended the Kikiiyu.escarpmont, traversed the Great llift Valley, ascended the, "slopes of the Mau range to within a short distance from ttlio summit, ; descended thence, the Nyando . Valley, . arid finally covered 'the whole 584 miles separating Mombasa from' Port Florence,'on Victoria Nyanza, which is the terminus of the railway. . German East Africa is the largest of tho Teutonic Colonies, and has\a coast lino twice as long as thai of the German Empire, being about 480 miles.' In this region the toughest opposition has been , met with, and the troops 'have had a hard campaign, with the position , often uncertain and stalemate. British East Africa is not a territory which wis .organised to resist invasion, but tho German area was not,only prepared to defend its acres, but was organised . on a. military basis to carry on offensive operations across its borders over a . length of /00 miles where the frontiers touch. ■ Tlie German policy in East Africa has first and foremost been that of destroying the Uganda Railway, but they have failed owing to the f.Piemlid co-operation of every" mail on . British soil, including the Dutch. Enemy Prepared for the War. Shortly after tho declaration of war movements were noted in . East Africa which showed that Germany had been well- prepared for adopting an .offensive °i i i oi , wa Policy directly the si"liai should be given l'rom Europe Throughout August, 1014, Oho Germans in East Africa made their plans, - and mine first half of September thev invaded British East Africa and gained som'o ground, although repulsed in Nvasaland. Tho operations ebbed and 'flowed for a month, and early in November mata head. An attack was delivered by us on Tanga on November 3, which was not strong enough to deal with" tho situation, and the result was that tho Gorman force drove back the British, and wo sustained 141 casualties.- . As a set-off to this reverso ; wo found the cruiser Konigsberg in a creek 2," c °ast, .arid promptly blocked up the fairway and .shut her in. This was an important achievement, as tho :oast operations ware destined to play a prominent part in the future work of the forces. After tlio unsuccessful attack; on Tanga on November 3, and the simultaneous operation against "the Ger"l a " .P° st ,°f Longido, in tho district ot Kilimanjaro Mountain, it was found necessary temporarily to adopt a defensive. attitudo along the" northern frontier of German East Africa Oil November 17"tho German outpost of Longido was occupied by the British troops, and is now held by us, and the ofiicial reports indicate the progress made generally. ■ .

Early, in December it was found necessary to institute operations against tiio German forces which had penetrated into our territory along the sea coast north of Tanga, and had there established themselves. With the aid of the naval forces on the East Africa Station theso oporations were successfully carried out, and by the end of December wo had driven the enemy out of British territory and occupied the port of Jassin, about twenty miles within Gorman territory.

On January 12, a strong German force with guns and maohine-gms secrctly concentrated against. Jassrn, and although every effort was made- to roliovo it, tie ppst, after exp.eudiog

its ammunition, was compelled to surrender. In these operations the Indian and African troops fought with great gallantry.' On January 8 an expedition was sent ftom Mombasa to occupy tho German island of Mafia, situated off tho <oasfc of Gorman East Africa. This was successfully accomplished with slight loss; tho island lias now been placed ui dor British rule.

On January 9 a small British force attacked and occupied the German port of Shirati, on tho eastern shore of Vic- : toria Nyjmza., During ...December and January stops had been taken to arm the British steamers oii the Victoria Nyansia, with tho result that on March G -thtTtsteamer Winifred drove ashore and totally disabled the Muanza, 1.110 only German '.armed steamer on tho lako.

On March 1 a blockade of the East African coast \y«s ;dechued, and amplo steps have been taken to make tho blcckade thoroughly: effective... Oil March 12 a German raiding party of about 300. men was : attacked noar Karunga, in the Victoria Nyanza district, by a forcfe of mounted'infantry aiid Ring's" Afri.cari Rifles, and driven with considerable loss over the Gorman border. Latterly, owing to the rainy season, tio operations of any magnitude had been Undertaken, although there had be'eir several .encounters with hostile patrols during April.

Our Lake Successes. At the end of May, east of the Victoria Yyanza, our forcos were stationed at various points'between the frontier of German East Africa and the Uganda Railway, tie patrols of both sides being more or lees constantly in touch with one another, resulting in continual skirmishing. West of_ the lake our forces .were stationed along tho River Ivagera, which runs a little south of the frontier .between Uganda and German East Africa. Here, too, our troops were in touch with the enemy, who were in Some force and had displayed considerable activity. . The baso fof the enemy's forces, opcrating iii this direction was the port of Bulteba, on the westorn shores of 'lie Victoria Nyanza. a point of considerable importance. Warlike stores Of all kinds had been accumulated tTiere, and it possessed a fort nud awireless, installation'. It was considered that_ the. destruction of this place' would relievo tho enemy's pressure on the Uganda border, . would go far towards paralysing their operations west of the lake, ana would exerciso an excellent effect on the natives,' who had suffered much from the enemy's raids in this quarter. , It was therefore decided to send an expedition by steamer from Kisumu, the port on tho eastern shore of the lake and tho terminus of the railway, while our forces along tho Kagera River were to co-operate and engage the enemy's attention in that direction. On June 20 tho expedition sailed. The force, which was under tho command of Brigadior-General J. M. Stewart, consisted of detachments of the 25tli Battalion Royal Fusiliers (Legion ! of ; Frontiersmen), Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, and King's African Rifles, with some artillery, while tho guns of the armed lako steamers provided further artillery. support. On Joine 25 General Tighe, at the ba6e, reported that the "result of the operations had been a brilliant success, and that the troops were returning after having destroyed the fort, tho wireless installation and many boats. One field gun, many rides, and valuable document had fallen, into our hands, and two machine-guns had been destroyed by' our artillery fire.

In East; Africa Indian troops took a foremost part in the operations 'until strengthened by British units, including a battalion of the Legion of Frontiersmen. This corps had steadily multiplied at_ home, arid i tlio authorities were at some'loSs i<j.ltnow how''to "'employ this regiment of specialists. Tlie difficulty of the work in East Africa provided a solution, and as a numbered "battalion of the Hoyal Fusiliers, "Driscoll's Tigers" one day., quietly deft Tlib next that was heard of them—the. first intimation of their departure from Eng. land—was, that they had been gloriously in action' as shown above. A Precarious Position.

With regard to operations in Nyasaland, practically no fighting had taken placo -between our forces and those of the enemy since the engagements fought at and. near' Karuriga in September, in which the enemy was severely defeated. That was the oilly fighting with the Germans that had taken place, but there was a native Arising. It was not a very serious affair. It commenced on January 23, and was very quickly suppressed. On February 3 the ringleader was killed, and that'was the end of the rebellion. Of all our possessions' Nyasaland's position was the most precarious when the war broke out. The force available there was very small, it could not possibly be increased from outside, and tho Colonial Office was, in very serious apprehension of something very bad happening there. That did not happen, but the extent of the danger may be judged from an incident in -which a post was held by us with fifty men and one officer against an attacking force of' 400. ' The post was held till help came, and the German forces were driven back with severe less. The fact that a small British steamer on August 14 surprised a German armed boat on Lake Nyasa gave to our. forces the command of that lake.' This has done much'to secure the safety of the • colony. • A British force' .of 50 Northern Rhodesia Riflcp and 25 Northern Rhodesia Police, under Lieutenant Bremher, waß dispatched, to a stockado established .about twenty-five miles from Fife. Tlie attacking party, under Lieutenant Irvine, pushed the gate with great bravery, penetrated the stockade, and-got into tho stockade trench, the police meanwhile having a severe engagement with those of the enemy who attempted to escape. The chief firing was from two 'long huts at the gate of tho stockade. Here Lieutenant Irvine received a wound, to which lie succumbed. The fight-itself was all over in twenty minutes. Only a few of the enemy got away. A number of old guns were seized and-32 prisoners taken. The enemy all used expanding and softnosed bullets.

The course of events has been as follows:— - September 13.—Invasion by the Germans. - September 19—Germans repulsed in Nyasalaud. November 2.—Operations continued in East Africa. November 3.—Germans drive a British force back in East Afrioa: 141 casualties. November 10.—The Konigsberg found in a creek on the coast and blocked in. November 17.—British occupy Longido. ' • December.—Operations on the Tanga coast: Germans cleared out; Jassin occupied. January B—lsland of Mafia taken from tile Germans. January 9. —Shirati captured. January 12.—Jassin recaptured by the Germans. January 23. —Small revolt in Nyasalaiid. February 3.—Nyasaland disturbance suppressed. . March 12.—Germans defeated at Karunga. May.—Small actions in German East Africa. June.—Destruction of tho German base at Bukcba. July-August.—Skirmishes.