376 



GERMANY. 



placed Dr. Krauel, whose first important busi- 

 ness was to arrange with Sir Percy Anderson the 

 details of the Anglo-German African agreement. 

 The new department is under the direction of 

 the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in all 

 matters .in which the interests of other powers 

 are involved, but in regard to the organization 

 of the protectorates and all purely colonial af- 

 fairs it receives directions 1'rom the Chancellor. 

 During the debate on the supplementary esti- 

 mates for East Africa, in answer to Herr Bam- 

 berger's statement that the Imperial Govern- 

 ment had paid out 19.000,000 marks for colonial 

 purposes. Chancellor von Capri vi said that ex- 

 penditures for ships of war ought not to be in- 

 cluded in such an estimate, and that the actual 

 expenditure of the Government on the colonies 

 till then had been 5,500.000 marks, while private 

 enterprise had invested 21,000,000 marks in 

 transmarine colonization. 



Heligoland. The island of Heligoland, 

 which was ceded to Germany by the British 



boating, letting lodgings, and supplying food 

 and services to the summer visitors. The island 

 formerly belonged to Denmark. In 1807 it was 

 taken by the English, who used it to store goods 

 and smuggle them into the Continental markets 

 in spite of the Berlin decrees of Napoleon against 

 English commodities. By the treaty of Kiel, in 

 January, 1814, Denmark formally ceded the ter- 

 ritory to Great Britain. The British Govern- 

 ment desired to retain it partly because of its 

 proximity to Hanover, then united to England 

 in the person of the sovereign, and partly lie- 

 cause of its supposed strategical value. In 1821 

 the garrison was withdrawn and no attempt has 

 been made to fortify it, British military authori- 

 ties having always pronounced against such a 

 course. It has no harbor, but has an open road- 

 stead, which is unsafe in the prevailing north- 

 west winds. While the cession was under dis- 

 cussion, some military authorities asserted that 

 it would be worth a fleet to England in case of a 

 war with Germany, while others held it to be of 





HELIGOLAND. 



Government in compensation for territorial con- 

 cessions in Africa, lies in the bay inclosed by the 

 coast of Germany and the peninsula that 'ends 

 in Denmark, about 20 miles from the nearest 

 shore, and 25 miles from the mouth of the Elbe. 

 It is a rocky isle, about three quarters of a square 

 mile in extent, inhabited by a Frisian people 

 nearly identical in speech and race with the 

 population of Schleswig. In 1881 they num- 

 bered 2,001. The sea bathing attracts about 13,- 

 000 visitors, mostly from north Germany, dur- 

 ing the summer. The revenue in 1888 was 8,- 

 132 and the expenditure 7,544. The adminis- 

 tration has been by a governor receiving 800 

 salary, assisted by an executive council. For a 

 large part of the year the island has served as 

 the rendezvous for the English fleet engaged in 

 the North Sea fisheries. The people carry on 

 fishing and lobster catching, but live mainly by 



no value as a coal depot to a blockading force, 

 as England was near enough, but rather a source 

 of weakness, since it would expose England to 

 the humiliation of having it captured on the 

 very day of the declaration of war, and in case 

 of a war with any other power it would require 

 the constant presence of a naval force to defend 

 it. German and French critics agreed that in 

 the event of a war between their countries, the 

 possession of a fortress on Heligoland by Ger- 

 many, guarding the mouths of the Elbe and the 

 Weser and the great naval arsenal at Kiel, would 

 set free an army corps. Since the establishment, 

 of the German Empire the desire to possess this 

 Gibraltar of the North Sea has been ardent and its 

 continued possession by Great Britain has caused 

 a feeling of impatience and even of resentment. 

 In the Anglo-German agreement provision was 

 made for the continuance of the existing customs 



