The pest seems to have been introduced in baskets of earth in which rubber stumps werepacked, and soon obtained a firm hold upon the plantations, though the Samoan Government has made strenuous efforts to extirpate it.
"The larvae usually proceeding from eggs deposited in decayed cocoa-nut stumps are found in large quantities six to twelve inches beneath the soil, in masses of rubbish, where they gradually transform themselves into beetles. On coming to the surface they fly from tree to tree and feed on the leaves, especially on the centre leaf of the cocoa-nut palm—the heart of the tree—which, being eaten up, the tree dies. The eggs, it is said, are always deposited by the beetles above the ground, and turn into caterpillars, which, boring their way through loose soil and rubbish, then become larvae."[H]
Rubber is of comparatively recent introduction into Samoan production, and only amounted to £646 in 1911.
Tapping really only commenced in that year; and though later figures are not available all reports as regards the quality of Samoan rubber are reassuring, and the prospects of the industry are regarded as excellent.
Cocoa, however, has been grown for many years, and in 1911 was exported to the value of £38,508, despite the ravages of the "cacao canker," which attacks the older trees, the young ones under eight or nine years old being seldom if ever affected.
Amongst other industries is the collection of phosphates, the value of which, exported from the Pacific Islands in 1912, amounted to £250,000.
The following official report was made last year on the phosphate industry in the islands of Nauru and Angaur:
"The Pacific Phosphate Company in 1912 shipped from the islands 138,000 tons (as against 90,000 tons in the previous year). The Company suffered from a gradually growing lack of labourers, which was in the end overcome by the importation of coolies. At the end of 1912, 59 Europeans, 90 Chinese, and 576 natives of the Protectorate were employed in the phosphate mines on the Island of Nauru. The works were improved and extended in many directions. The Deutsche Suedsee Phosphat Aktiengesellschaft exported from Angaur 54,000 tons of phosphate, as against 45,000 tons in the previous year. The total annual production has consequently increased by 57,000 tons. While on Nauru Island labour was scarce, on Angaur several plants had to be finished before work could proceed to the full extent. Labour conditions were here satisfactory."
"The Pacific Phosphate Company in 1912 shipped from the islands 138,000 tons (as against 90,000 tons in the previous year). The Company suffered from a gradually growing lack of labourers, which was in the end overcome by the importation of coolies. At the end of 1912, 59 Europeans, 90 Chinese, and 576 natives of the Protectorate were employed in the phosphate mines on the Island of Nauru. The works were improved and extended in many directions. The Deutsche Suedsee Phosphat Aktiengesellschaft exported from Angaur 54,000 tons of phosphate, as against 45,000 tons in the previous year. The total annual production has consequently increased by 57,000 tons. While on Nauru Island labour was scarce, on Angaur several plants had to be finished before work could proceed to the full extent. Labour conditions were here satisfactory."
The imports to Samoa are principally cheap "trade goods," and include large quantities ofcalico, petticoats of which are worn by both men and women. The latter purchase white dress-stuff and have them printed by native dyers with a dye known as tapa.
The value of imports in 1911 totalled £203,312.
Galvanised iron has grown more and more in demand, the wild sugar-cane disease having nearly destroyed the manufacture of the picturesque native thatch.
New Zealand and Australia have a regularly connecting line of steamers, and in 1913 a better connection was provided for the whole South Sea District (by the Germans of course) by a steamship line from Singapore which touched New Guinea as well as Samoa.
The South Seas have for many decades been the field of fruitful labour of missionaries, and as a result of their work in their native schools every Samoan can read and write his own language. The Government had a school for white and half-caste children at Upolu in which they were taught English.
After annexing Samoa the Germans established a Government, taking the form of a Government Council, consisting, besides the members who occupied official positions, of eight persons selected by the Governor, and who were chosen from the leading merchants and planters. The votes of the general public as regards the election of these were presented to the Governorfor his information, but he was not compelled to act in accordance with them—the votes merely indicating the popular wish in the matter. Up to 1912 two councillors, who received no salary, were Englishmen but subsequently all were German.
The Germans took steps to get rid of "the white men on the beach," and the class of white who dreamed the hours away there were discouraged by a deposit of £25, or a guarantee for that amount, being required to be placed in the hands of the collector of customs before strangers from foreign countries could land, unless they intended leaving again by the next or following steamer.
Up to December, 1912, pleading by foreigners in the Imperial Court in Apia was allowed in the English language by persons who could not speak German, but this was then stopped and all Court proceedings were held in the German language, or, where those concerned could not speak German, by means of an interpreter. Interpreters were provided by the Court for witnesses, but not for parties to suits nor for anyone appearing for them. In the custom-house and post office, however, English was still permitted.
The Government was extremely anxious to increase the use of the German language in Samoa, but as regarded trade and commerce the proximity of Australia, New Zealand and Fijicaused the knowledge of English to be of far more importance to the residents, whatever their nationality.
The New Guinea (formerly known as Papua) group of islands comprise Melanesia, the Samoan being included in Polynesia.
In New Guinea the British territory was in 1914 approximately 87,786 square miles, while the German possessions in the north of the principal island, and including the Bismarck Archipelago, amounted to roughly 180,000 square miles.
German New Guinea was, upon the hoisting of the German flag, renamed Kaiser Wilhelm's Land, New Britain became Neu Pommern, and New Ireland took the name of Neu Mecklenburg.
Neu Pommern and Neu Mecklenburg are the principal islands of the Bismarck Archipelago, the area of which is estimated at 48,000 square miles.
Lying in the equatorial region, the climate of New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago is hot and humid, and the seasons may be roughly divided into the comparatively dry period of the southeast monsoon from about May to November, and the rainy west or north-west monsoon.
The annual rainfall is heavy, being some 150 inches on the sea-board, and far more on the highlands which intercept the moisture-laden clouds.
Like the majority of the islands of the South Seas, New Guinea coastal districts are infested with mosquitoes, and malarial fever, which affects Europeans as well as natives, is prevalent. It occurs in more or less severe forms, and occasionally terminates fatally. The eradication of the mosquito pest by petroleum spraying, which has proved such a marked success in the Panama regions, is now being attempted in all malarial-stricken countries, and will, when accomplished, no doubt bring immunity from malaria to New Guinea.
The coastline on the mainland of New Guinea is fringed by coral reefs and a line of large and small islands, and is indented by fine bays; but to reach them the navigation is extremely difficult.
In the narrow passages between the islands and between the reefs the current is so strong and runs so continuously for days at a time that a sailing boat can do nothing but lie at anchor waiting for a turn in the tide, and some have had to wait for a fortnight before they could get through.
The chief danger to navigation is the number of coral reefs that are scattered about the coast, very few of them charted. Sometimes there is enough water to make it safe to pass over them, and then the coral presents a beautiful sight—snow-white with long branches, or bright-red: then the sudden drop into deep, dark nothingness, at the edge of the reef that rises sheer from bottomless depths.
The islands are volcanic and the Kaiser Wilhelmterritory in particular is very mountainous, the most prominent feature of its configuration, especially on the east coast, being the magnificent mountain ranges which in places rise steeply from the narrow fringe of the low coastal lands.
Snow-capped mountains and volcanoes, rising to a height of 15,000 feet or more, are reported to have been seen in the interior, which is still considerably unexplored.
There are a large number of mountain streams on all the large islands, but so far no navigable river has been found in the Archipelago.
An abundant rainfall, together with a high and equable temperature, has produced a vegetation of exceptional luxuriance and great variety. While in places extensive areas of grass plains are found, the hillsides and lowlands are, for the greater part, covered with almost impenetrable forest, containing timber trees of considerable size and utilitarian value.
Manioc (wild arrowroot), yams, bananas, and other tropical fruit such as paw-paws are cultivated by the natives, while sago forms a staple food of the inhabitants.
Sago palms grow wild in the bush, and prior to treatment sago is, like tapioca, in its crude state poisonous; but the Papuans have devised the means of carefully preparing the pith of the palm, and by washing, straining, and drying rendered it fit for food.
Until the end of the flowering period, the hollow interior of the sago palm, somewhat similar to bamboo, is filled with a starchy mass from which the growing fruit draws its nourishment. The tree is felled by the Papuans and the pulp scraped and washed, during which process the sago is separated and sinks to the bottom.
Cocoa-nuts also form an important food factor, and groves are found everywhere; while copra and palm-oil are the principal articles of trade.
Papuan birds are noted, and amongst the numerous species of bird life the bird of paradise is particularly notable for richness of plumage; and the skins of bright-plumaged birds have been in the past extensively exported.
New Guinea holds less than 500 white inhabitants, the majority being, of course, German officials and planters; while the natives living in all the islands are estimated at 500,000.
Papua suffered for years from the presence of the undesirable "white men on the beach," and wild and weird tales are told of early days of white men with nothing to do, sitting or lying about in native houses.
The Rev. Henry Newton, one of the pioneers of later civilisation in British New Guinea, gives the following description of a phase of New Guinea life:
"The storekeeper would go to bed and leave a supply of liquor handy for his clients to dispose of as seemed best to them."They would spend the night drinking and gambling, the empty bottles thrown over the veranda would form a fine heap on the ground, and sometimes one or two humans would follow the bottles as the result of a heated but disconnected argument, and decide to remain there till the morning. The storekeeper and publican would count up the number of 'dead-heads' in the morning, and divide the total cost amongst those whom he had left to enjoy themselves overnight."A gaol was built for the accommodation of native prisoners; not that this meant there was no need of a place of detention for members of the white race. Occasionally a white man had to be accommodated."One man, an Irishman, who had been indulging not wisely but too well and had decided on open-air treatment, was lying asleep in the street, and it was necessary to remove him. A detachment of native police was told off to carry the member of the ruling race to the gaol."When they had hoisted him on their shoulders and were marching off, the unhappy man waked up for a moment, and, not quite understanding the situation, said 'Hullo, boys, what have I done? Why, am I a hero?'"[I]
"The storekeeper would go to bed and leave a supply of liquor handy for his clients to dispose of as seemed best to them.
"They would spend the night drinking and gambling, the empty bottles thrown over the veranda would form a fine heap on the ground, and sometimes one or two humans would follow the bottles as the result of a heated but disconnected argument, and decide to remain there till the morning. The storekeeper and publican would count up the number of 'dead-heads' in the morning, and divide the total cost amongst those whom he had left to enjoy themselves overnight.
"A gaol was built for the accommodation of native prisoners; not that this meant there was no need of a place of detention for members of the white race. Occasionally a white man had to be accommodated.
"One man, an Irishman, who had been indulging not wisely but too well and had decided on open-air treatment, was lying asleep in the street, and it was necessary to remove him. A detachment of native police was told off to carry the member of the ruling race to the gaol.
"When they had hoisted him on their shoulders and were marching off, the unhappy man waked up for a moment, and, not quite understanding the situation, said 'Hullo, boys, what have I done? Why, am I a hero?'"[I]
The native Papuans are not regarded as suitable for work in the Western sense of the word, and the German efforts to exploit the natives have not produced very successful economic results, and the import of Chinese coolies had to be relied on. This resulted, in the Pacific Islands generally, in a traffic in labour which roused R. L. Stevenson's ire.
The native inhabitants consist in New Guinea of a number of races, differing totally from each other in appearance, customs, and language.
The various tribes have little in common with each other, and inter-tribal wars and feuds have been continuous, in the course of which the custom of "head-hunting" became a popular pastime.
Although the Samoans strenuously repudiate the suggestion that they or their ancestors were ever addicted to cannibalism, the Papuans freely admit the prevalence of the custom; and although they now profess to have discontinued cannibalism, the older men will talk confidentially about the doings in "the old days," and will sigh for the times that have been.
The natives have unbounded belief in the powers of sorcerers and in witchcraft, and are more easily held in control by superstition than by any appeal to any sense.
The hard work—domestic and agricultural—is done by the women, as amongst most native races; it being beneath a man's dignity to be engaged in any other labour than that connected with warfare, sport, or the provision of creature comforts.
The Government of New Guinea was vested in aGovernor whose seat was at Herbertshöhe, picturesquely situated on the shores of Neu Pommern. The town was the most important commercial centre of the Colony, several of the principal trading and planting firms making it their headquarters. Round about it are situated some of the best cocoa-nut plantations in the islands.
The official language was, of course, German, but English was also spoken or at least understood by all European residents in the islands.
In the intercourse with the natives the weird form of speech known as pidgin-English is in universal use throughout the South Seas. It is framed on the same principles as their own languages, and every white man who cannot speak native seems to fall naturally into the use of it. So universal is its use that in German New Guinea the Government officials, to the offence of theirkulturedminds, had to use it if they wanted the natives to understand them.
In their anxiety to spread the use of German, this must have been particularly distasteful to the officials, especially when an Englishman who did not understand German found a medium in pidgin-English.
Some compensation, however, is found by a German writer who says that "althoughit is deplorable that, while the easily learned Malay language might be introduced with advantage,this unlovely dog-English should still be encouraged, the quaint expressions promptly invited by the natives for anything new to them, amply demonstrate their ready wit and furnish a constant source of amusement."
But if "pidgin" is a barbarous perversion of English, on the other hand pidgin-German is a horror hardly conceivable.
Of all the island groups in the Pacific Ocean, perhaps none offers conditions equally favourable for agricultural pursuits than does the north coast of New Guinea and the Archipelago. Lying outside the cyclonic belt, those devastating storms which are largely responsible for the failure of crops in Polynesia, as well as in some of the groups north of the line, need not be reckoned with, and a greater fertility of the soil further helps to make this part of the Pacific well fitted for tropical cultivation.
Cocoa-nut growing especially proves most profitable, but cotton, rubber, cocoa, coffee, and tobacco are also grown, besides spices and fruits.
The export of copra, which in 1912 amounted to £300,000, has steadily increased as more and more land was brought under cultivation. Other articles of export include phosphates, pearl and tortoiseshell, trepang, sandal-wood, and vegetable ivory.
The exportation of phosphates in 1912 amounted to about £250,000, and with copra made up 90 per cent of the exports.
Skins of birds of paradise were exported from Kaiser Wilhelm's Land in 1912 to the value of £25,000, but an agitation on hand against the destruction of wild birds for the sake of their plumage will no doubt put an end to this traffic.
Trepang or bêche-de-mer, otherwise known as sea cucumbers and sea slugs, are an important food luxury amongst the Chinese and other Eastern people. They are used in the gelatinous soups which form an important article of food in China. They are prepared for export by being lightly boiled, then sun-dried, and finally smoked over a fire. A small English company is engaged in the industry of trepang fishing.
While timber of great variety and excellent quality exists in inexhaustible quantities, and although there are small saw-mills in Kaiser Wilhelm's Land, only small quantities of timber for cabinet purposes have been exported.
Traces of valuable minerals have been discovered. In 1890 gold was located by prospectors from Queensland, but the gold veins discovered have not proved as valuable as had been hoped.
Oil has also been prospected in New Guinea, but its exploitation was reserved by the German Government. The analysis showed a high percentage of heavy oil.
The imports, amounting in 1912 to £750,000, consist chiefly of food-stuffs, liquid and tinned,machinery and iron ware, building materials, clothing, leathern goods, and sundries.
The wants of the natives are few, however, and little trade is done with them in textiles, the clothing of men and women alike being usually composed of strips of cloth with plaited grass girdles and a profusion of shell ornaments.
On 15th August, 1914, the advanced detachment of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, which was ordered to seize Samoa, left Wellington at dawn and was met at sea by three of His Britannic Majesty's cruisers in New Zealand waters—thePsyche, thePyramus, and thePhilomel.
As it was known that the German armoured cruisersScharnhorstandGneisenauwere at large in the Pacific, it was decided not to go direct to Samoa, but to shape a course for New Caledonia (French).
Cruising off New Caledonia the British ships were joined by the French cruiserMontcalmand by the Australian cruisersAustraliaandMelbourne.
The contingent received a wonderfully enthusiastic reception from the French in New Caledonia, and under the command of Admiral Sir G. E. Patey the allied fleet steamed for Samoa.
In the early dawn of 30th August the first glimpse was obtained of Upolu—the scene of wars and rebellions and international schemings, and the scene also of that devastating hurricane whichwrecked six ships of war and ten other vessels and sent 142 officers and men of the German and American navies to their last sleep.
The rusting ribs and plates of theAdler, the German flagship, pitched high inside the reef, stared at them as a reminder of that memorable event.
ThePsychewent on ahead, and after the harbour had been swept for mines, she steamed in under a flag of truce and delivered a message from Rear-Admiral Sir George Patey demanding surrender. The Germans, who had been expecting their own fleet in, were surprised at the suddenness with which an overwhelming force had descended upon them, and decided to offer no resistance to a landing.
In a remarkably brief space of time the covering party was on shore, and shortly afterwards Apia was swarming with British bluejackets and troops. Guards were placed all about the Government buildings and a staff installed in the Government offices.
The custom-house was seized and an armed party was dispatched along a bush road to seize the wireless station, the tall, latticed iron mast of which could be seen rising above the trees some three or four miles inland on the lower slopes of the hills.
Meantime the German flag that had flown over the island for fourteen years was hauled down,the Germans present doffing their hats and standing bareheaded and silent on the veranda of the Supreme Court as they watched the soldier in khaki from New Zealand unceremoniously pulling it down, detaching it from the rope, and carrying it inside the building.
Next morning the British flag was hoisted with all due ceremony. The troops were drawn up in three sides of a square facing the court-house—the seat of the new Government. Inside the square and facing the flagstaff were Colonel Logan and staff in their rough khaki uniforms, with them the naval Commanders. On the left the high Samoan Chiefs, Tanu-Malietoa and Tamasese—who had been specially invited to attend the ceremony—with other Chiefs made a picturesque group.
Fifteen years ago some of those present had seen the young Chief Tanu placed on the throne of Malietoa, with the representatives of the allied fleets of Great Britain and America and the civil authorities of these natives in attendance, and the Germans conspicuous only by their absence.
A few minutes before 8 o'clock all was ready. The commands to the troops had ceased and an intense silence had prevailed. Two bluejackets and a naval lieutenant stood, with the flag, awaiting the signal.
Presently the first gun of the Royal salute from thePsycheboomed out across the bay. Then slowly, very slowly, inch by inch, to the boomingof twenty-one guns the flag was hoisted, the officers with drawn swords silently watching it go up.
With the sound of the last gun the flag reached the top of the flagstaff and fluttered out in the southeast trade wind above the tall palms of Upolu.
The troops came to the Royal salute as the band played the National Anthem.
The reading of a proclamation by Colonel Logan terminated the brief but finely impressive ceremonial.
The German Governor, Dr Schutz, was sent to Fiji and subsequently to New Zealand.
With similar ceremonies Herbertshöhe in Neu Pommern was occupied by an Australian force.
On the 14th September the German cruisersScharnhorstandGneisenaumade their appearance at Apia, but on the New Zealanders manning the guns the ships left for the open Pacific.
A German merchant ship was at the time at Pango-Pango in the American island of Tutuila, and ten members of the crew deserted and rowed the seventy miles to Apia, where they hoped to find theScharnhorstandGneisenau. They were, however, arrested by the British authorities.
A British administration was set up. The German officials in the old administration resigned their appointments, but the natives decided to continue under British rule.
In their various "voyages of discovery" and enterprises to extend their trading operations, it was inevitable that the European nations should endeavour to find an opening into China.
From being a dreaded volcano whence streams of lava in the shape of devastating hordes constantly overflowed to upset the ideas of culture as conceived by the nations who radiated the principles of "civilisation" in succession to the fallen Empires of Greece and Rome, China had retired into a seclusion, only to be disturbed when "Progress" knocked at her doors.
She shut herself in and literally walled her borders, not so much to keep out invasion but to retain for herself and her people her stoical civilisation and the secrets in the arts and crafts of which she was the sole possessor; for Chinese internal affairs concerned no one but herself and her people, and her peculiar industries were conducted and perpetuated on an apprentice system—father to sonhanding down by word of mouth the methods of success in the various arts.
As European nations rose and fell—as the grandeur that was Spain succeeded the glittering adventures of Portuguese navigators, as the Dutch, French, and British struggled for mastery on the outer seas, and while Europe resounded with the stern music of the tramp of Napoleon's legions, China, with her centuries of arrested civilisation, maintained an inscrutable attitude, and, slumbering in brooding silence, preserved her aloofness from any interest without her borders.
The wave of European trade-expansion surged high upon her barrier of inclusiveness before she awoke to what was to her a new era—the age in which man might demand for man equable treatment in the way of trade, upon a basis in the constitution of which China had no experience and no say.
Hitherto China's conception of outer trade was merely the collection of tribute, and her first association with trade with the "foreign devils" from the outer world was quite in conformity with that idea, for her piratical junks set out and joyously exacted toll indiscriminately.
But this was hardly the legitimate form intended by the merchants of the West, and compensation for the misconceived acts of her subjects being demanded, China was invited to subscribe totreaties which might open her doors to the introduction of more cultured methods of barter.
Unreluctantly, however, as China assented to the development of trade by foreign nations in her seas and along her coasts, for many years the severest possible restrictions were placed upon Chinese leaving their country for the purpose of trade.
"Treaties" were concluded with the Western nations for the sake of peace, but by the Chinese in general these treaties were regarded as mere subterfuges whereby to disarm the vigilance of the prey.
Treaties for the furtherance of trade were entered into with the Western nations in turn from the end of the seventeenth century onwards, but none of these entailed any territorial concessions nor threatened "the integrity of China."
The thin end of the German wedge seems to have been inserted into Chinese affairs by the conclusion of a secret treaty in 1880 between Germany and China, whereby the latter, who was ready to grant or promise any manner of concession in return for being left alone, gave Germany trading privileges, which she had already granted to other nations. But Germany's influence in China was nil until after the Chino-Japanese War of 1894.
Russia, owing to her geographical position and to the intercourse of her subjects with the Chinese, was chiefly interested in China, and the TaipingRebellion of 1850 firmly established France and Great Britain in the exclusive Empire.
In 1894 war broke out between China and Japan, which resulted in a complete and decisive victory for the latter.
Peace was signed by Li Hung Chang on behalf of China at Shimonoseki on the 17th April, 1895, and the European nations realised at its conclusion that in Japan a new Power had arisen in the Far East, and that the beginning of a new epoch had begun.
The Peace Treaty entered into between Japan and China in 1895 provided, for the absolute independence of Korea which had been a vassal of China since 1882, the cession to Japan of the Island of Formosa and the Liao-tung Peninsula at the foot of which lies Port Arthur (which was then occupied by the Japanese), and the payment of an indemnity of £30,000,000, pending the handing over of which Japan was to occupy the Port of Wei-hai-wei on the Shantung Peninsula.
A further condition of the treaty was the opening of certain places to foreign enterprise and commerce.
The conclusion of this treaty brought the European Powers on the scene.
For some time Russia had been intent upon the problem of securing an ice-clear port on the Pacific Ocean as an outlet to her Siberian possessions—an ambition which was considered by British statesmenas not unreasonable—and therefore the occupation by Japan of all the coastline of Korea by no means suited Russia. She, therefore, invited the intervention of the Powers, and the invitation was accepted by France and Germany, but declined by Great Britain.
A joint note was then presented to the Tokio Government by Russia, France and Germany, under which Japan was recommended not to occupy any of the Chinese mainland permanently.
The Japanese, finding this force arrayed against them, stated that they "yielded to the dictates of magnanimity, and accepted the advice of the three Powers."
Japan gave up the whole of her continental acquisitions under the war, and retained only Formosa; so the "integrity of China" seemed to be preserved for the time.
The Japanese people were shocked at this incident. The attitude of Russia and France they could understand, but Germany, who had been worming her way into Japan's good graces by professions of friendship and who was wholly uninterested in the ownership of Manchuria, seemed to have joined in robbing Japan of the fruits of her victorious war merely to establish a title to Russia's goodwill, and to renew the good relations with Russia which had been broken by the Franco-Russianententeof the years 1891-1895.
In pursuit of her aim of an outlet to Siberia,Russia assisted China in the payment of the Japanese war indemnity, and obtained the right to carry the Siberian railway to Vladivostock, this giving her a grasp on Northern Manchuria. By a secret arrangement with Germany, Russia subsequently obtained a "lease" of the Liao-tung Peninsula, giving the assurance that Port Arthur would be an "open port" for the trade of all nations; but as it transpired that Port Arthur was unsuited to mercantile trade, it became solely a naval base and the "open port" was established at Dalny.
On the 20th June, 1895, France entered into a convention with China under which she obtained certain railway and mining rights in Kiang-si and Yun-nan, and the signing of this convention brought China into conflict with Great Britain.
Great Britain could hardly regard with equanimity the growth of Russian influence in the north; she therefore demanded and obtained a lease of Wei-hai-wei on the Shantung Peninsula, occupied Wei-hai-wei immediately upon its evacuation by the Japanese, and threw the port open to outside trade.
In the meantime Germany considered that she had received no reward for her share in supporting France and Russia in compelling the retrocession of Liao-tung; in fact China could not be brought to see that Germany's place in "world politics" entitled her to annex any portion of the Chinese Empire.
On 1st November, 1897, however, two Roman Catholic missionaries, who were German subjects, were most conveniently murdered near Kiau-Chau, and, ostensibly to get compensation for this outrage on Germankultur, Germany proceeded to seize Kiau-Chau.
This port was claimed by Russia, but on the face of it the synchronical cession of Port Arthur to Russia points to the two countries having come to an arrangement mutually satisfactory under the secret agreement concluded by them, while Russian action respecting Port Arthur and German action in regard to Kiau-Chau tallied at every point.
The proceedings in regard to Kiau-Chau were Hohenzollern to the last degree—arrogant and theatrical.
Three German warships were dispatched to China and they landed marines at Kiau-Chau while preparations for sending out reinforcements were hurried on in Germany.
The squadron was placed under the command of the German Emperor's brother, Prince Henry of Prussia, whom the Kaiser designated, in a farewell speech at Kiel, as the "mailed fist" of Germany.
The German Emperor thus furnished a pleasing fancy for humoristic journalists and caricaturists, for the comic side prevailed and the mission rocked the world in the gentle throes of laughter ratherthan stirred it with the tremulous quaking of dread.
On arriving at Kiau-Chau with his squadron, Prince Henry wrapped the mailed fist in a parchment covering, demanding the "lease" of the town and the neighbouring district to Germany for a period of ninety-nine years; and, divining that Germany could rely on the support of Russia, the Court of Pekin had no option but to bow to the inevitable, and the lease of the territory demanded was signed on the 6th March, 1898.
The Shantung Peninsula, a maritime province of China on the Yellow Sea, is the most densely inhabited part of China, and is celebrated as the native province of Confucius and therefore sacred to both Chinese and Japanese followers of the dictate of the sage's analects.
The peninsula is a mass of mountain ranges which rise to a height of 5,000 feet. The ranges are intersected by fertile valleys which provide sustenance at a minimum expenditure of toil.
Kiau-Chau is a splendid harbour and, in regard to Pekin, of great strategical importance. The German occupation of the harbour and as much of the surrounding territory as they could bring under their influence was, they declared, only to provide a gateway to China and an open door for German trade.
The trade did not, however, progress under German administration of the territory. Therewere no means of transport, and until railways could be constructed the port could only supply and draw from its immediate neighbourhood.
Only Germans frequented Kiau-Chau and trade decreased, as the natives cordially disliked the inquisitorial ways of the official system.
The chief value of Shantung is in its mineral deposits—principally coal, and coal easily takes the first place amongst articles of export. Iron ore, gold, galena (lead and silver), and copper are found in considerable quantities.
The principal agricultural products are wheat, millet, Indian corn, pulse, arrowroot, castor-oil, vegetables, and fruit.
Wax is a considerable article of trade, while seri-culture (silk) forms an important industry.
Silkworms are fed on mulberry, oak, lettuce, or vine leaves; and the nature and quality of the silk depends upon the character of the food. The worms fed on mulberry and lettuce leaves produce the lighter forms of silk, those on vine leaves a silk of a deeper yellow colour verging on red, while the oak-leaf-fed worms produce the well-known pongee, chifu or Shantung silks. This latter is not as fine as the mulberry or lettuce silk but is of more practical use and of better wear.
The soya bean, cultivated so extensively and profitably in Japan, the oil cake made therefrom, and cotton are also produced by the Chinese in the Shantung province.
The exports from Kiau-Chau, according to Chinese statistics, amounted in 1912 to about £1,250,000; while the exports reached £1,750,000.
Germany brought under her sway in the Shantung Peninsula an area of about 120 square miles.
The German population in Kiau-Chau, exclusive of troops, was only about 2,100 in 1913, but the peninsula was strongly garrisoned. The Chinese population centred about Tsingtau and amounted to nearly 54,000.
Immediately after their occupation of the Shantung province the Germans entered into negotiations (which were probably conducted in the usual Prussian way) with the Chinese authorities, and a concession was granted for the continuation of the Shantung railway to a junction with the great cross-country railway Pekin-Hankau, the German object being of course to establish a direct Kiau-Chau-Pekin trade.
In 1914 a new service of steamships via the Suez Canal from Hamburg to the American Pacific coast was inaugurated, and the liners calling at Tsingtau, in order to carry goods to the United States and Canada without reshipment, provided a fortnightly service for Tsingtau.
A German writer says: "The mountainous neighbourhood of Tsingtau is, thanks to German afforestation, beginning to get a different character. Where formerly only rough open country was to be seen, timber and orchards are filling the slopes.The Chinesework voluntarilyfor the Government, and receive payment in seeds, shrubs, and trees for their own property."
The Germans made every effort for the germanisation of Shantung, and schools were established where science and technical science were taught; and the students, according to the same writer, "first learned German and in this way became messengers of German civilisation all over China," for which blessing China has not, seemingly, exhibited any marked degree of gratitude.
Kiau-Chau and Tsingtau were fortified and made as impregnable fortresses as modern science could construct, and all German proceedings indicated that any "ultimate retrocession to China" of the province was extremely problematical.
The outbreak of the war of 1914 gave Japan an opportunity of paying off to Germany both the capital and accumulated interest of the score she had held to Germany's debit ever since the latter's unwarrantable intrusion into her sphere.
The capital consisted of an announcement in the early stages of the war of Japan's intention to take action to protect the general interests in the Far East, "keeping especially in view the independence and integrity of China," and in the delivery on the 15th August of an ultimatum to Germany.
The interest was provided by the ultimatum being couched in almost identical terms with Germany's ultimatum to Japan sixteen years previously.
The following is the text of the ultimatum:
"We consider it highly important and necessary in the present situation to take measures to remove the causes of all disturbance of peace in the Far East, and to safeguard general interests as contemplated in the agreement between Japan and Great Britain."In order to secure firm and enduring peace in Eastern Asia, the establishment of which is the aim of the said agreement, the Imperial Japanese Government sincerely believes it to be its duty to give advice to the Imperial German Government to carry out the following two propositions:—"(1) Withdraw immediately from Japanese and Chinese waters the German men-of-war and armed vessels of all kinds, and to disarm at once all those which cannot be withdrawn."(2) To deliver, on a date not later than 15th September, to the Imperial Japanese authorities without condition or compensation the entire leased territory of Kiau-Chau with a view to the eventual restoration of the same to China."The Imperial Japanese Government announces at the same time that in the event of its not receiving by noon on 23rd August an answer from the Imperial German Government signifying unconditional acceptance of the above advice offered by the Imperial Japanese Government, Japan will be compelled to take such action as it may deem necessary to meet the situation."
"We consider it highly important and necessary in the present situation to take measures to remove the causes of all disturbance of peace in the Far East, and to safeguard general interests as contemplated in the agreement between Japan and Great Britain.
"In order to secure firm and enduring peace in Eastern Asia, the establishment of which is the aim of the said agreement, the Imperial Japanese Government sincerely believes it to be its duty to give advice to the Imperial German Government to carry out the following two propositions:—
"(1) Withdraw immediately from Japanese and Chinese waters the German men-of-war and armed vessels of all kinds, and to disarm at once all those which cannot be withdrawn.
"(2) To deliver, on a date not later than 15th September, to the Imperial Japanese authorities without condition or compensation the entire leased territory of Kiau-Chau with a view to the eventual restoration of the same to China.
"The Imperial Japanese Government announces at the same time that in the event of its not receiving by noon on 23rd August an answer from the Imperial German Government signifying unconditional acceptance of the above advice offered by the Imperial Japanese Government, Japan will be compelled to take such action as it may deem necessary to meet the situation."
The ultimatum caused a sensation in China, as it was stated that China was fully of the intention "eventually" to regain possession of Kiau-Chau by her own resources. The Chinese Government in perturbation expressed the opinion that the only course for Germany was to cancel the lease of Kiau-Chau and hand the territory back to China.
The United States of America intimated, as an expression of their view, that the United States would have been better pleased if the word "eventually" in the ultimatum had been better defined.
On the 23rd August Japan declared war upon Germany, and immediately proceeded, with the assistance of British warships and men, to blockade the harbour of Kiau-Chau and invest Tsingtau, which was the key to the situation.
The German cruiserEmdenwas at Tsingtau on the outbreak of war and got to sea before the blockade.
TheEmdenhad a short but by no means inglorious career. Under her resourceful, gallant and courteous Commander, Von Müller, she cruised the Bay of Bengal and destroyed British shipping to the value of over £1,000,000; she bombarded Madras, causing appreciable damage, and her final exploit of note was to steam boldly into the British port of Penang, disguised by rigging up a dummy extra funnel and flying the Japanese flag, where she sank a Russian cruiser and a French torpedo-boat destroyer.
On 10th November, however, she arrived off Cocos Islands, and while a landing party was busy destroying the wireless and cable apparatus there she was discovered by the Australian cruiser H.M.A.S.Sydney, by whom she was engaged, driven ashore and burnt.
The Shantung German possession made a strenuous resistance, but after two months' investment by land and blockade by sea, surrendered to the joint British and Japanese force, and the dream of a German Empire in the Far East was dissipated.
The fall of Tsingtau and Kiau-Chau was a rending blow to German prestige in the East, and its severity excited bitter comments on this extinguishment of what was in German papers described as "a shining testimony to German culture."
Poor oldkultur! It has of late had many a heavy burden to bear and is now entrusted with the final destruction of Japan, for according to a leading German paper: "The Japanese have assisted England in destroying the most brilliant work of German colonisation (save the mark!). England will reap the harvest sown by her short-sighted Government in a time not so far distant.
"Germany has lost Kiau-Chau, but not for ever; and when eventually the time of reckoning arrives then as unanimously as what is now a cry of pain will a great shout of rejoicing ring through Germany—'Woe to Nippon.'"
So both England and Japan had better look out.