Note 229 — Chapter XXVIII · THE CONCESSIONS RÉGIME IN FRENCH CONGO

The same game was tried with the Germans in Cameroons. To quote from an article in the National Zeitung, which, as I have reason to know, may be accepted as authorised: “If in the Congo State itself the Berlin Act could be disregarded in this way, and the natives obliged to bring in the produce against their will, why could it not also be done in other places? And as the Congo State was itself making the best use of its monopoly, and only gave concessions to others at high prices, the monopolists tried, and not without result, to obtain the same state of affairs both in France and in Germany. In Germany, the German Colonial Society at once protested against this state of affairs. In spite of this, however, several of the Belgian capitalists were able to obtain the help of influential German persons, who obtained from the Government the concession of South Cameroon. This company had obtained the assistance of Colonel Thys for its operations on the Brussels Stock Exchange, and immediately after the flotation of the company the shares were driven up to two or three times their value. Further concessions in the free-trade zone were not conceded, and, with the exception of the North-West Cameroon concession, in consequence of the energetic opposition in colonial circles, no further concessions were, or will be, made in the German territories. The German Government has entirely abandoned this policy of concessions.”