AN ECONOMIC PLAYGROUND FOR GERMANY [To the Editor of THE
SPECTATOR.] Sin: -Miss Charlotte Cameron surely forgets that it is not the Imperial Government but the Overseas Dominions with whom the question of what were once German Colonies mainly rests. It • may be interesting to recall at least one version of how Germany obtained her'portion of South West Africa. In 1895, when I was returning - from -Cajie Town in the old ` Norman,' Captain Bainbridge commanding, I was seated next but one to him, and several old Smith African .friends being round him, he told many stories of the earlier days. Once, he said, when on an outward voyage he had a German Mission on board, whose leader after the Bay and Madeira became very ingratiating, and asked many questions regarding i he west coast. He asked also to see charts of the coast, and these were duly displayed, as Captain Bainbridge wished to know what lay behind, and in the end it came out.
The Mission was on its way to annex what afterwards became German South West Africa, and among other papers its leader produced the copy of a letter from, if I remember rightly, Lord Granville to Bismarck, in which he said the British Government would only be too delighted to have so friendly a neighbour in South Africa as Germany. Immediately the steamer was alongside the wharf, Captain Bainbridge took a hansom to the office of a Cape Town editor and member of the Cape Town parliament whom he knew, and passed on the news. The response was, " But that is impos- sible ; for when we proposed to annex the territory the Home Government refused its sanction, and gave us a binding promise that no other than the Cape Government would be permitted to occupy the territory." " Therefore," he said, " These people have been pulling your leg." A short para- graph, however, appeared in the evening's paper repeating the rumour, and recalling the promise of the Home Govern- me. A.
The German Mission chartered a small sailing vessel, went up the coast and within, I think, two weeks planted the German flag. Today The Union of South Africa may have more to say than in that earlier day. regarding_ the disposal of the territory ; and while preserving the friendliest possible feeling to Germany, the return of her lost colonies bristle with difficulties, not of the making of the Imperial-Government, nor of those of the Dominions.—I am, &c.,_
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