LORD SALISBURY'S ACHIEVEMENT.
SOME three weeks ago, we drew attention to the rapidity with which the delimitation of Africa was being carried out ; but since then another great step in the work of boundary-fixing has been taken. The full text of the Portuguese Agreement, which was published in London on Tuesday, enables us to realise in its entirety the distribu- tion of the hitherto unappropriated portions of the continent, and to appreciate the magnitude of Lord Salisbury's achievement. In opposition to the usual habit of politicians, the Prime Minister seems anxious to de- preciate the results of his diplomacy. The "master of flouts and jeers" has, indeed, not hesitated to throw contempt upon what he has accomplished in Africa, and in a vein of characteristic irony has given the world to understand that the territory secured for the development of British enterprise is, like the rest of the continent, of very little practical value. The Biblical proverb, "It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer ; but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth," is with him entirely at fault. Lord Salisbury waited till he had made a successful bargain before he pronounced his doubts as to the value of the territories he had acquired. The Prime Minister's habitual pessimism must not, however, be allowed to mislead the public into imagining that the amicable settlement of a continent for which some five Powers are scrambling, and the peaceful acquisition by Great Britain of vast tracts of country, is a matter to be made light of. In truth, it is nothing short of one of the most signal diplomatic triumphs of the age, and who.. Mashonaland has become the greatest gold-field in the world, when the coffee-plantations of the Shire Highlands eclipse those of Ceylon and Costa Rica, and when the trade with England of our African possessions equals that of South America, we shall look back with gratitude and admiration upon the statesman who con- solidated our position in the continent, and secured to England a firm grasp upon the interior of Africa. In taking stock of Lord Salisbury's actual achievement, let us begin by considering the exact effect of the agree- ment with Portugal. People who look at a map of Africa some five or six years old, will notice that the Portuguese possessions on the East and West Coasts are not confined by any lines of demarcation towards the interior. But as long as this was the case, it was possible for Portugal to claim a belt of territory stretching from sea to sea, and entirely cutting off our South African Colonies from further expansion. The next person who makes a map of Africa will, however, have to tell a very different tale, and to give definite boundaries to both the Portuguese Colonies, for the new agreement has placed strict limits upon their respective Hinterland claims. On the East Coast, the frontier-line of the Portuguese possessions now begins on the north at the German boundary—the River Rovuma- follows its course till its conjunction with the M'Sinje, and thence cuts across in a straight line to the shore of Lake Nyassa. It thereupon follows the lake shore towards the south for a time, and then strikes across to a small lake to the east of Nyassa. Thence, embracing the east shore of this lake, the boundary runs to the eastern margin of Lake Chilwa, which it follows to its south-easternmost point, runs straight to the most easterly affluent of the River Ruo, then pursues, first that affluent and next the River Ruo itself, till it reaches the Shire. Thence the frontier-line leaps across the triangle left between the Zam- besi and the Shire and having its apex at their junction, and touches the Zambesi at Tete. At Tete it crosses the river, and. makes the south bank its guide to Zumbo. At Zumbo, however, it crosses for a moment to the north bank, so as to embrace a little Portuguese province, con- sisting of territory enclosed in a semi-circle, having a radius of ten miles measured from Zumbo. From Zumbo the line runs straight south for a time, then bends towards the east again and. meets the Sabia River, and thence pro- ceeds to the north-eastern corner of the Transvaal. There- upon it follows the Transvaal . border and the Swaziland. border, and after including a slice of Amatongaland, finally ends at the frontier of Zululand. On the West Coast, the Portuguese frontier is to start from the border of German Damaraland at the Katima Rapids and run along the -Upper Zambesi till its junction with the Kabompo, and then up the Kabompo to the point where that river issues from the territory of the Congo Free State. The net result upon English Africa of this delimitation of Portuguese territory is to make a wide red lane run right up the centre of the continent, from the borders of the Transvaal and the Bechuanaland Protectorate, to where the southern boundaries of the Congo State meet those of the German territory at the south end. of Lake Tanganyika. If this red lane were all that England secured, it might be a somewhat useless posseision, for a deep belt of foreign territory stretches on each side between it and the sea. Fortunately, however, Lord Salisbury was not content with the mere acquisition of so many square miles of territory, but insisted upon rights-of-way being established between the British lane and the coast. In the first place, he obtained the agreement of the Portuguese to a clause making the Zambesi, the Shire, and their affluents, international highways free to the flags of all nations. Next, the lakes and. rivers within the newly appor- tioned territory, and any canals that may be made there, are to be open to all English vessels, and even in the Rivers Limpopo and Sabia no duty of more than 3 per cent, is to be levied on goods in transitu. Lastly, the Portuguese Government is to construct itself, or else to allow to be constructed, a line of railway between the British districts in the interior and Pungwe Bay. The last of the advantages secured to Great Britain under the agree- ment is a promise made on the part of Portugal that none of the lands for the first time acknowledged. to be hers are to be ceded to any foreign Power until they have first been offered to England. This right of pre-emption is exceedingly valuable. For example, it is quite possible to allow Portugal to occupy a piece of Amatongaland ; but the presence of the Germans or French there would. be utterly intolerable. However looked at, then, the agree- ment is a subject of genuine congratulation, and not least because it is eminently fair to Portugal. The almost complete inability of that Power to develop her territories might, had it been pressed as an argument, have confined her sphere of influence to much narrower limits. As it is, we cannot possibly be accused of treating Portugal harshly. If we take the Portuguese agreement in connection with those with Germany, France, and Italy—the last-named Power arranged its affairs almost silently with the East Africa Company—we shall realise how immense is the sphere of influence obtained by England. We left the red lane at the southernmost point of Lake Tanganyika. Thence it is carried on, first by the internationalised lake, and then by means of a way-leave across a piece of German Central Africa, till the territories of the British Imperial East Africa Company are reached. But these extend down the Nile Valley to Denka and. Darfur, and so meet the Egyptian Soudan, which, though the Khedive is not in de facto posses- sion, can certainly not be claimed by any other Power. The English sphere of influence, in esse or posse, stretches, then, in a straight line from Table Mountain to the Rosetta mouth of the Nile, only interrupted physically by the short piece of German territory subject to the above-mentioned right-of-way. But this is not all. The possessions of the British East Africa Company form a sort of junction on the red lane. To the east runs a broad strip of territory touching the coast at Mombassa, and on the west another which practically meets the sphere of influence belonging to the Niger Company. That organisation has already extended its sphere 'of influence over Bornu, and must ultimately dominate Bagarmi and Wadai. But when once this has happened, it will be seen that English Africa will form a sort of rough cross, of which the four points will be Egypt, the Cape, Mombassa, and the Niger. To make this cross complete, however, it is necessary that we should have a strip of territory—the width does not matter, fifty or a hundred miles broad would suffice—instead of the German way-leave between the north of Tanganyika and the nearest possessions of the British East Africa Company. Surely this can be obtained. Of course Germany will not yield it, but the Congo Free State, if it is sold to Belgium, could easily be induced to enter into the necessary arrangements. The territory is not specially valuable except to us, and if the strip were purchased at a fair price, or exchanged for territory else- where, the Belgians and ourselves might both be gainers. This, however, is a matter which can wait, though as an ideal it should be steadily borne in mind by the Foreign Office, the Colonial Office, and the directorates of the East and South African Companies. Those who are inclined to doubt whether, after all, Lord Salisbury's achievement is anything to be proud of, urge that a delimitation carried on in London, and to a great extent in the dark, may only prove a source of fresh disputes. That there is some danger of this, cannot, of course, be denied. Plenty of bickering as to the details is certain to take place whenever they come to be settled. To test properly, however, the advantages secured by the recent agreements, we must consider what would have happened if these agreements had not been made. Assuredly the result would have been even more unsatis- factory: and for this reason. It is far easier to negotiate and to get the Powers to agree as to boundaries in unknown territory, than in districts which are beginning to get known. If the hunters, missionaries, settlers, traders, and gold-prospectors, and the half-disavowed, half-encouraged military officers with pockets-full of blank treaties, are allowed to go into a country in no way delimitated, they are sure to set up a hundred thorny questions which greatly impair the chance of a peaceful settlement. If instead of delimitating Africa by guess-work, the Powers had waited till the interior had been what the Americans call "jumped," it would have been hardly possible to arrange matters without recourse to the sword. As it is, we have the parallels of latitude and longitude, the courses of rivers, and the shores of lakes set up as landmarks, within which the adventurers of each nation must confine themselves. It may be found later that the work of boundary-making has been ill done from many points of view ; but, at least, it will prevent that sort of rough-and-tumble, first-come-first-served way of settling the queston which has been practically advocated by Dr. Peters and Major Serpa Pinto,—a way which offers endless opportunities for quarrels of the most bitter kind.
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