INTRODUCTION

treaty would have to be re-affirmed, which Germany and Great Britain at a former moment concluded with regard to them.

In this way Germany would have a colonial domain compact in itself, defensible and easily accessible on the West coast ; the domain would offer an adequate field ol activity to the German spirit of enterprise, and would thereby help to procure us the raw materials we lack— whether minerals or products of tropical agriculture. Il by our administration we gain the sympathy of the natives, we can count upon them in the event of war—as has been seen in the case of East Africa. Our colonial domain would have such an extent that it would not be in the power of our enemies to conquer it, even if for a period the colonies were thrown upon their own resources. Again, such a colonial scheme would altogether correspond with the German programme—territorial expansion for the purpose of security only—and it would not impose upon our opponent any sacrifices which he would feel intolerable. That such a colonial domain would confront German colonial administration with new tasks can no more be questioned than that these tasks would often be difficult ones ; yet they are not incapable of achievement, neither do they demand any excessive financial outlay, provided we resolve to adjust the measure of intensive administration to the amount of the resultant profit.

8.—Davis Trietsch.

Trietsch is the author of a pamphlet, published in 1917, entitled Afrikanische Kriegs ziele (African War-Aims'). We may conjecture that, unlike the writers already cited, he is a Pan-German, since another of his small books, Tatsachen und Ziffern , is published by the Pan-German firm of Lehmann, and warmly recommended and circulated by Pan- Germans. Although the principal exponents of Mitt el- Afrika deny that Germany needs the things for which the Pan- Germans clamour in Europe, there is no reason why Pan- Germans should not regard an African Empire as one of the things which would be thrown in, as a matter of course, if their European aims were realized. Trietsch writes: —

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