On Wednesday in the Reichstag Prince Billow formally introduced Herr
Dernburg, the new Director of the Colonial Department, and delivered a speech upon German colonial policy. For two thousand years Germany had been a colonising Power, and she would continue one so long as she existed. The present difficulties could only be met by remedying the administrative defects, and one of the first steps toward this end must be the creation of a separate Imperial Colonial Office. He had long had the intention of entrusting the Colonial Department to some "captain of industry," and in Herr Dernburg be had found at last the proper man. After referring to the recent colonial scandals, he declared that all colonising Powers had their unpleasant experiences, and that German officials were not surpassed by any. He con- cluded with an appeal to the House to pass the Supple- mentary Estimates for South-West Africa. Herr Dernburg, who followed, explained what steps had been taken in consequence of the Tippelskirch revelations, and made a lengthy defence of the figures published in the Memoranda issued earlier in the week. He placed his trust, Ls said, in railway development. His tone of cheerful optimism seems to have impressed his hearers more than the evidence he brought forward to justify it. The Memoranda still remain a forecast of what might be rather than a statement of what is.
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