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Congo Acts which had been formulated upon the initiative of Dr. Easson, American Ambassador to Germany, be maintained and the war kept out of the neutralized colonies. France refused to accede to this on August 16 th, and England on August 17 th. Hereupon fratricidal war burst upon territory which solemn pacts had decreed should be kept free from its horrors. Should an attempt be made to support the purely imperialistic claim of annexation by the purely militaristic plea of forcible conquest, then both, by virtue of the Congo Acts, must be negatived through the illegality of the very declaration of war against these German colonies.
The Miracle of Lettow-Vorbeck.
The heroic struggles of General Lettow-Vorbeck, his exhausted and decimated forces and their faithful black comrades, cut off from all supplies from and contact with the motherland and battling against splendidly- equipped troops twenty times their superior in numbers, will remain one of the monumental defences in history. Harried by illness and privation, confronting and overcoming frightful obstacles and difficulties, the magnificent spirit of this small body of colonial Germans kept up the hopeless fight for over four years until the fainting motherland herself gave the signal to surrender. German soil in Africa has been twice sanctified by German bloody German arms have gloriously defended the title to German land.
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