INTRODUCTION
to elaborate a new series of sheets covering 1 Mittel-Afrika. Of this imposing work, on the scale of i : 2,000,000, the two sheets covering the Eastern Sudan have now been issued by Dietrich Reimer in Berlin. They are admirable in every respect. With the most conscientious thoroughness they have laid every accessible source under contribution—especially the official French, British, German and Belgian maps, as well as the publications of unofficial investigators, and may well bring the knowledge of these regions a good step forwards. ... At the coming peace negotiations the geography of Mittel-Afrika will play a principal part..
ii.— “D eutsche Weltpolitik und kein Krieg.”
The utterances of Dr. Solf would by themselves suffice to prove that the scheme of Mittel-Afrika is not merely the dream of a group of private individuals, but a project which has behind it the deliberate will of the German Government. Such a conclusion is confirmed by further evidence. From this we may gather that the scheme was not first adopted by the German Government in the heat of the world-war, but represents a purpose of old standing. It was in pursuance of such a purpose that the German Government before the war had entered upon negotiations with the British Government, which had almost succeeded in getting the British Government to agree to arrangements calculated to bring German Mittel-Afrika about, automatically as it were, in process of time. For in those days there was a very general disposition among British statesmen to give all reasonable gratification to the German desire for a place among the colonizing Powers. Dr. Solf alluded to these transactions in his Leipzig speech of June, 1917: —
In the time before the war, clearly recognizing the importance of continuous colonial territories for the safety of the German nation, we had made far-reaching preparations, in order that by peaceful understanding and agreement
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