INTRODUCTION

averse from it, into its most convinced friends ” (Dr. Solf, Secretary of State for the Colonies, quoted in the Kreuz- Zeitung for January 9, 1918). But if gain is not to be had in other directions, then the gain of colonial territory acquires value as a salve to national pride, which would be wounded, if the war ended in loss all round. It is perhaps for this reason that of late the idea of the African Empire has seemed to be in the ascendant.

It is important that the English-speaking peoples should have a clear statement put before them of this German pro­gramme, a statement exhibiting the hopes and intentions attached to it in the German mind. A circumstantial, state­ment by a German is of special value, as a first-hand document, and this is just what we have in the book by Emil Zimmermann here translated. The book was written for German readers ; British and American readers may be trusted to draw their own conclusions.

But Emil Zimmermann is not the only publicist who is busy displaying the magnificent possibilities of Central Africa to the German people and working up enthusiasm for the scheme. It may be well, in an introduction to Zimmermann’s book, to take some note of statements of the same gospel by others. It will be seen how closely parallel all the statements are, and their combination may give the British reader, like a cpmposite photograph, a good idea of what Mittel-Afrika means.

I.— ÖSKAR KARSTEDT.

We may begin with a summary statement of it by Dr. Oskar Karstedt, editor of the Deutsche Kolonialzeitung , in a little pamphlet called Koloniale Friedensziele (Colonial Peace-Aims'), which is one of a series published by Duncker in Weimar for the purposes of popular enlightenment. He

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