GERMANY'S "TEEMING MILLIONS."
[To TER EDITOR Or TRa "SPECTATOR:"]
SIR,—Irou endorse Lord Goschen's "admirable speech," which
you say "has put very clearly the true position with regard
to Germany an excellent statement of what we believe to be the truth" (Spectator, August 4th, p. 155). Lord Gosohen says : " Why did Germany push on her naval expansion, while France would be compelled to do the same ? Not from aggression, but from a settled policy. She required more territory for her teeming millions." Assuming this to be the real reason, please see how complete the failure is. Germany, following Britain's example, in recent years has annexed territory equal to eight United Kingdoms. The teeming millions of her people have, how- ever, not occupied the territory. On the contrary, they have
shunned it.
In 1904 Togoland, 38,000 square miles, population one and a half millions, had 189 Europeans, 179 of these Germans. Kamerun, 191,000 square miles, a half larger than the United Kingdom, had 710 whites, 638 of these Germans. German East Africa, 384,000 square miles, nearly double the size of Germany, had 1,437 Euro- peans, of these 1,102 Germans. Marshall Islands, twenty-four in number, have only 81 whites, of these 61 Germans. Bismarck Archipelago has only 203 Germans. Here we have in all only 2,183 Germans. The German population of the two remaining German regions is not given, but Kiao-chow Bay has 3,735 Europeans. German South-West Africa has 4,682 Europeans. Count all these as Germans, and there are not 11,000 Germans in the vast Colonial Empire of Germany, probably not 9,000 of the " teeming millions."
As far as providing room for Germany's "teeming millions" is concerned, it would be as correct to say that Britain's recent large acquisitions in the East were required and acquired for her teeming millions. I submit, Mr. Editor, both Britain and Germany knew quite well that their people would not emigrate to, and could not colonise, the territories annexed.
If I may venture upon another paragraph, let me call your atten- tion to this important fact. From the unification of Germany in 1870 till 1904 2,616,731 emigrants left Germany; 2,399,803 of these went to the United States. This movement continues. In 1904, of 27,984 emigrants, 26,085 went to the United States. These go to friends who have obtained work for them, and are lost to Germany for ever. They and their descendants become members of our English-speaking race. How consoling this should be to the Spectator.
Another fact : Germany has no " teeming millions " seeking homes elsewhere abroad. Her surplus for many years has only ranged from 22,000 to 36,000, the latter the highest for many years ; 83,000 of these went to America. What egregious fools the governing class of Germany must be, in Lord Goschen's and in your opinion, to expand and maintain their Empire at enormous cost to find room for " teeming millions " that have no more existence than Falstaff's men in buckram, and who, if they did exist, would not, and, indeed, could not, live permanently in the territories annexed. Was not the real motive animating both these Teutonic peoples, what Mr. Gladstone has called "the chief cause of wars in the past, territorial aggrandisement"—the love of dominion—the belief that every square mile of territory absorbed adds to the greatness and glory of the Empire, only true when the added territory ie coterminous and fertile, as in the case of the great West added to America, but the reverse when the additions are in a different hemisphere, and unfit for occupation of the home race?
[Our point was that as a matter of fact Germany has certain Imperial ambitions, whether connected with the expansion of her population, as Lord G-oschen suggested, or the expansion of her trade, or merely the desire for territorial aggrandise- ment. These Imperial ambitions—for the existence of which there is ample evidence, both direct and indirect—involve an extra-European activity, and therefore naval expansion. We do not suggest that German colonies of to-day provide a field for German emigration, but we maintain that Germany eagerly desires a Colonial Empire which would provide such a field. She has no desire to go on supplying America with citizens.—En. Spectator.]
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