GERARD 



2463 



GERMAN EAST AFRICA 



GERARD, jerard', JAMES WATSON (1867- 

 ), an American diplomat who was called 

 upon to represent his country in one of the 

 most critical periods of its history. In 1913 

 he was appointed ambassador to Germany by 

 President Wilson; the following year saw the 

 great powers of Europe engaged in the War 

 of the Nations, in the course of which the 

 relations between Germany and the United 

 States became repeatedly strained as a result 

 of the German submarine policy. Throughout 

 the period when the two nations were at- 

 tempting to come to an understanding through 

 diplomatic correspondence Gerard carried on 

 his trying duties with a skill and tactfulness 

 that won admiration. In February, 1917, when 

 President Wilson severed diplomatic relations 

 between the two countries he was recalled. 



Gerard is a native of Geneseo, N. Y., and a 

 graduate of Columbia University (1900) and 

 Columbia Law School (1902). For three years, 

 from 1908 to 1911, he served as associate jus- 

 tice of the supreme court of New York. He 

 was also active in Democratic politics in his 

 state, having been chairman of the Democratic 

 campaign committee of New York County 

 for several years. In 1914 he was a candidate 

 for United States Senator. 



GERIN-LAJOIE , ger'aN lahzhwa', AN- 

 TOINE (1824-1882), a Canadian novelist and 

 poet, whose story of Jean Rivard is one of the 

 classics of French-Canadian literature. Like 

 many of his contemporary men of letters, 

 Gerin-Lajoie was a barrister by profession, but 

 for many years was either contributor to or 

 editor of several periodicals. He was one of 

 the founders and at one time president of 

 L' Institut Canadien. Jean Rivard is his best 

 book, but also noteworthy are Le Jeunc Latour 

 (Young Latour), a tragedy, and Dix Ans d'His- 

 toire du Canada, 1840-1850 (Ten Years of Cana- 

 dian History), a clear analysis of the decade 

 during which responsible government was es- 

 tablished in Canada. 



GERM, jurm, in its broadest sense, the term 

 applied to the earliest stage in the growth of 

 a living organism. For example, the botanist 

 calls the embryo of a seed the germ of the 

 plant, and the sprouting of the seed is knpwn 

 as germination. In popular language, the terms 

 bacteria and germs are used synonymously 

 when reference is made to the minute organism 

 which medical investigators have proved to be 

 producers of disease. See BACTERIA AND BAC- 

 TERIOLOGY; DISEASE; subhead Germ Theory of 

 Disease; subtitle Diseases of Plants. W.A.E. 



GERMAN EAST AFRICA, the most impor- 

 tant and the largest of the German colonies, 

 captured by Great Britain in 1917. The peace 

 conference in 1919 refused to return it to Ger- 

 many, but gave a mandate to Great Britain to 

 govern it, with responsibility to the League of 

 Nations. Even its name may eventually be 

 changed. It cuts in two the vast British posses- 

 sions stretching along the eastern half of the 

 continent, and has prevented continuous com- 

 munication through British territory between 

 Cape Town and Cairo. 



Area and Population. The area of German 

 East Africa is estimated at 384,000 square 

 miles, or nearly the size of Germany and France 

 together. It is nearly 20,000 square miles 

 larger than the great Canadian province of 

 Ontario. Its 

 population is es- 

 timated at about 

 7,700,000 inhab- 

 itants, of whom 

 only 5,500 are 

 whites. 



Description and 

 Resources. The 

 coast, which is 

 620 miles long, is 

 low and flat, but 

 most of the in- 

 terior is a table- 

 land situated at an altitude of 3,000 to 4,000 

 feet. South ancfeast of this table-land are 

 several chains of mountains. In the north- 

 eastern corner of the colony rises the volcanic 

 peak of Kilimanjaro, 19,720 feet, which is the 

 highest point in Africa. The rivers are not 

 navigable. 



Agriculture and cattle raising form the chief 

 occupation of the inhabitants. Millet, wheat, 

 cotton, tobacco, copra, rice, coffee, tea and 

 sugar cane are grown. Rubber is collected in 

 increasing quantities. These together with 

 ivory constitute the chief exports. Coal, iron, 

 copper and salt have bean found. 



The capital and chief seaport is Dar-es- 

 Salaam, which is connected with Ujiji on Lake 

 Tanganyika, a distance of 743 miles, by a rail- 

 way which traverses the colony from east to 

 west. There is another railway running from 

 Tanga on the coast to the foot of Kilimanjaro, 

 a distance of 220 miles. 



History. German colonization started here 

 in 1884, and the boundaries of the colony were 

 fixed by treaties concluded with England, Bel- 

 gium and Portugal in 1890. A serious upris- 



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