EAST AFRICA.
BRITISH AND GERMAN POSSESSIONS. "It can be assumed that the eco-. ncmic relations between German East Africa and the two British protectorates will become closer and closer, and so, in peaceful competition, Germany and England will work together for the expansion of civisliastion in East Africa." This is the concluding sentence of 1 recent book written on British and German East Africa by Dr'H. Brode, who wbs for many years in charge of the German Consulates at Zanzibar and Mombasa. But the author reckoned without his Empreor. British . and German interests in East Africa are now in conflict. There are —or were up till the outbreak of war —about a hundred Ger- , man subjects living in British East Africa, and a dozen or so in Uganda. Over half a dozen large German companies were doing business, and some smaller traders and farmers had their homes there. Garman East' Africa had a total annual trade of about £2,500,000, imports representing £1,750,000 and exports £750,000. British Ea»t Africa's trade, including tnat of Uganda, amounts to about £1,600,000, imports representing £850,000 "and ex ports £750,000. It may bo stated that the German colony is far more developed than the two British East African protectorates. "It would be vanity to attribute our better successes to better colonial methods by us," says Dr Brode. "A good deal of it we even owe to our neighbours, who by thei* railway have opened to cultivation some of the best parts of our colony. But the principal point is that in ,tha division of East Africa wo have apparently got hold of the batter territory," As a matter of fac*-, British East Africa is better known to Germans than the German colony is to English people. Mombasa has to be passed by the residents of the German colony on their way to and from Europe, whilst German East Africa is out of the way of those who have their homes in British East Africa or Uganda. Many German officers bad to cross right through British East Africa on the way to their stations, $ "Apart from this," says the writer, "the German interest in their neighbours is keener and vice versa. . ■ The reason is obvious. The English are a nation of long colonial experience. For experiments in a new colony easily find models in one of their old possessions; they do not need to go to school to such a colonial parvenu as their German neighbour appears to them to be. Bui thnre is also another side to the question. For Ds East Afriea was the jewel of all our colonial possessions, whilst in the huge British colonial Empire their East African protectorates were looked upon as stepchildren. The general interest in them was exhausted for some time by the construction of the Uganda railway, which had swallowed enormous sums, and after its completion there was not much inclination to make further aacrific23 for their development. In Germany on the contrary, the colonial interest which awoke by-and-by was : motly concentrated qp the East African possession. So every thing which has been done in German East Africa is of a solid character; in British East Africa one notices every whera, the tendency to save money. One has only to compare the two capitals, Daressalam and Mombasa'. At the one are smart villas, with all home comforts; at the other, u-ly bungalows of corrugated iron." The German sphere in East Africa has a coastline of about 620 mileo, and* its estimated area is 384,000 aquare miles. The native population is about 10,000,000, consisting mostly of tribes of mixed Bantu race, the European population is about 4000, including nearly 3000 Germans. The chief exports ere rubber, copra, ivory, rotfee, and sisal hemp, whilst cocoa, vanilla, tobacco, sugar, tea and cotton are also cultivated. In addition, there are about 050,000 head of cattle and 5,000,000 sheep and goats. Minerals known to exist within the protectorate are coal, iron, lead, copper, mioa and salt, whilst gold has also been observed and agates, topaz, moonstones, tourmalni, garnets, and quartz crystals are found. Wide, well-kept roads run all through the colony.
The military and police force consist of about 350 Germans and 4500 natives. British East Africa consists of a large area on the mainland—including the East Africa Protectorate and the Uganda Protectorate—under the immediate control of the Colonial Office, together with the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, governed through their Arab Sultan by the Foreign Office.
§ TheiEast African Protectorate has an area of about 200,000 square miles, and an estimated population of 4,100,000, including 25,000 Asiatics and 2500 Europeans and Eurasians. There are 1850 police under some 40 European officers and non-commissioned officers. In the Uganda Protectorate, comprising an area of 117,681 square miles, and having a native population of 3,500,000 and a European population of about 450, there is a battalion of the King'B African Rifles, 800 rank and file, and 975 armed constabulary, under a British commandant and British officers. There is also a volunteer reserve of over 60 efficient Europeans. The Nyassaland Protectorate—a portion of British Central Africa, lying round the s-hores of Lake Nayssa, and extending nearly to the banks of the Zimbesi—has an area of 39,315 square miles, and a population of 1,022,000. The European inhabitants number 758, and there are 356 Indians there. The chief towns are Blantyre, Zomba he»dquarters of the Government — Fort Johnston, the principal port of Lake Nyassa and marine transport depot, and Kotakota, on the west coast to the lake. Almost the entire trade is done' with the United Kingdom. The armed forces consist of 100 Sikhs and the Ist Battalion of the King's African Rifles.
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King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 708, 30 September 1914, Page 6
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943EAST AFRICA. King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 708, 30 September 1914, Page 6
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