Hon>' to Expiiiiil 49 



waterless desert, or interned on barren rocks on the sea 

 coast, there to die of hunger and thirst, until it had been 

 estimated that the Herero tribe had been reduced by 

 between 30,000 and 40,000." " In view of the figures 

 published," sums up Mr. Harris, " a population of ' at least 

 something over two persons to the square mile — against 

 ten in Angola and eight, even to-day, in the Belgian 

 Congo — gives as the original numbers, from 750,000 to 

 1,000,000,' and to-day the remnant cannot total more than 

 200,000. In Togoland in 1894 official figures put the 

 population at 2,500,000 natives and the Europeans at 56, 

 aud yet twenty years later — in 1913 — the native popula- 

 tion was given as being only 1,500,000. Truly can Ger- 

 many, especially the Prussian element in it, pride them- 

 selves on their thoroughness in depleting the Tropics of its 

 coloured labour supplies, which to-day are an absolute 

 necessity if the soil is to be cultivated and the crops pre- 

 pared and sent over as foodstuffs and raw materials, for 

 without tliese no white country can exist for long, and 

 Germany least of all, as she will always be the last nation 

 on earth to successfully run colonies of her own. She can 

 only fasten and fatten herself, barnacle-like, on the colonies 

 of other nations so long as the other nations are foolish 

 enough to allow her to do so. 



With such facts before us, it was pleasant to hear Mr. 

 Long say that her Colonies will never be returned to Ger- 

 many, especially as the question has not, so far apparently, 

 attracted much attention among the non-German Ameri- 

 cans. While President Wilson is reported by the Round 

 Table for March, 19 18, p. 248, to be in favour of an 

 absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims in 

 which the interests of the populations concerned " must 

 have equal weight with the equitable claims of the 



Government whose title is to be determined." 



■ On the whole, American opinion is more alert as to the 

 African tropical colonies, but it is still quite fluid. Very 

 little is known as to the essentials of that problem. Few 

 of the facts about German maltreatment of the Aborigines 

 have reached American ears, and there is no wide appreci- 

 ation of the gravity of General Smut's warning " as to 

 Germany's military aims throughout the interior as well 

 as along the coast-lines of Mittel-Afrika. American public 

 opinion is as yet not at all interested in the fate of 

 Germany's South Sea Islands." 



