ENGLAND AND GERMANY AT THE CAMEROONS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1205, 3 April 1885, Page 3

ENGLAND AND GERMANY AT THE CAMEROONS.

To appreciate the squabble between England and Germany en the West. Coast of Africa, which has resulted in the British flag being pulled down at the Cameroon River, some explanation (says the Lyttelton Times ) is needed., A snccinot .explanation of (he position is given in the papers by the mail. The debateable river runs into the .Bay of Biafra, almost due east of the Niger Delta. Further east still is a place- called King Bell’s Town, at which Dr Naehtigal hoisted the German flag as recorded some mouths ago, and on the western side of the river are the Cameroon Mountains, coveted by Germany. Until lately it was a fact quite unknown to moat Englishmen that, irotwithatahding the supineness of the Brutish Government the mountains and the whole of the coast from the Niger to the German settlement called Bimbia, near the Cameroon River, has been added to the Empire. How this came about is a rather c iriouS story. The legitimacy of the claims of England to the >nger Delta has been re cognised-by the Berlin Conference, but the establishment of a British protectorate over the territory intervening between - the Niger And the Cameroon River was the work of Consul Aewett and a Pole of the name of Rogozinski. As Prince Bismark, who wrath, fully narrated the exploits of the latter to the Reichstag, did not question the fact that the ol jectionable l -Pole had forestalled the German annexationists, and is the poo-wretch has already been arrested by the German authorities for his pains, it is worth while reprinting the story from the letter of the School Director at Po

HOWi’SOLB SATED THE CAMEROON MOUN•j: TAINS ?0B ENGLAND. ''Rogozinski some two years ago organised a FftHatf Expedition to West Africa. He was then called Schulz (his mother’s maiden name bet ig Rogozinski), and had serried as officer in She Russian Navy. By lectures end other means he got sufficient money to sta t the expeliiion as' an independent Polish national undertaking. The. part he has played on i be banks of the Cameroon was explained in a letter of the School DU rector of Fernando, Pd, Senor Antonio Borges Silva, to the editor of the Courtier Varahavski, which was published on 29th November, 1884. The following are extracts' from Silva’s letter;—'“ Months ago the German Government decided to found a colony in the Bay of Biafra. - For this purpose Dr Naohtigal, as the Commissioner of the German Empire, appeared with a gunboat, and took possession of the Batanga territory, the Cameroon River, and Bimbia. Dr Naohtigal purposed to annex like the Cameroon Mountains, on which are situated the possessions of the Rogozinski expedition; But Rogozinski forestalled the pose of Germany on the whole coast line to Calabar. On his return from a recent visit to Gaboon he heard of Germany’s plans; he decided to exert all ' his influence with the chiefs to frustrate the endeavours of Germany, with which nation hu does not sympathise. But as Dr Naohtigal would probably act without delay, nothing remained for him but to induce another nation, to forestall the Gormans. The nearest at hand were the English, whose representative resides at Bonny. Rogozinski at once placed the matter before the British agent, and succeeded in convincing him that it would be to the interest cf them both, but especially that of England, to put the mountains under English protectorate. Rogozinski advised immediate action, if they wished to secure the territory, and offered to exert all his influence with the chiefs if he were supported by an English gunboat. While waiting for a reply, Rogozinski and Zanikaffski, well acquainted with local affairs, made a treaty with one of the native tribes, bv. which part of the country came into their possession. The other tribes were persuaded to make direct treaties with England. Meanwhile the English gunboat Forward brought the answer of Consul Hewitt, who accepted Rogoz'mski’s proposals, and asked him to execute his plans. Consequently Rogozinski sighed a treaty, in which he placed the territory acquired by him under the English protectorate, but reserved for himself the local administration. then he visited the mountains, and made similar treaties with the chiefs. In this way the coast districts between Victoria and Calabar have been made inaccessible to Germany. Scarcely had this been done when on its return the English gunboat met the German war vessels Leipzig and Mowe, ynth Dr Naohtigal on deck. . He steered towards those places, but to th‘ delight of your countrymen they cams too late. It had been high time, for had he been a day later the Germans would have had their way." This is the story of the way in which Dr Naohtigal was baffled, and the probability is that when details come to band it will be found a real or fancied loopholo in the method of annexation is the pretext noon which the Germans have pulls 1 down the Bri’ish flag and hoisted their own. Victoria is not on the river hut some distance west, Bimbia lying between it and the stream. THE NEW POSSESSION. The region stretching ■ from Victoria to Bonny is a fertile tropical coast, remarkAble chiefly because of the mountains which rise almost directly from the sea. These hills, which;will afford .hereafter a great sanatorium for the West Cosat,, arejp very striking contrast to the rest of the coast

line. The mountain rise* -200 metres above the sea, an ) the verdant slopes aff >rd the ntlly place along the coast where plantations could be made although even here it is doubtful whether Europeans could work-on the laud. -The-only German factory on the right of the Cameroon river is that at Binbia, hut it is not included in the territory recently annexed by the German Government. As- Victoria, however, is the extreme southern limit of the British limit of the British protectorate, Biin* bia may be considered- as practically German, At present tho German possessions in the Cameroons are in a state of desolation.