Part 1 — CHAPTER VII. AFRICA (WITH MALTA). (continued 2)

In Togoland the Germans made an unconditional submission. Lieut.-Colonel Bryant, commanding our forces which had passed into Togoland from the Gold Coast, reported on August 24 that the German wireless station at Kamina had been destroyed by the enemy, and that they had sent a flag of truce offering to capitulate if given the honours of war and certain conditions. They were told they were not in a position to ask for terms and must capitulate, which they did after some hours' delay. The Allied force—French native troops acting with a Gold Coast frontier force—thereupon occupied Kamina. The cost of these operations was 60,000l. and the Legislative Council of the Gold Coast Colony passed a resolution offering to pay it as "a tangible expression of the widely manifested wishes of the inhabitants to afford their loyal support to His Majesty's Government, and to manifest their sympathy with it in the righteous war in which the Empire is engaged." On December 2 the Governor telegraphed that the Revenue Estimates having disclosed a much more favourable position than was expected he had inserted, "at the earnestly expressed wish of the unofficial members of the Council," a sum of 80,000l. as a contribution by the Gold Coast during 1915 to the expenses of the war, this in addition to the Togoland payment. Mr. Harcourt replied that the offer would be gladly accepted "if it should appear that the financial position of the Gold Coast allows of so large a contribution."

From the Belgian Congo news was very scanty, and such fighting as occurred took place on the frontier in mid-Africa, chiefly it seems south of Tanganyika. A report from the Governor-General of Katanga Province spoke of "a complete defeat" of the Germans at Ki Senei, on the Lake. But no sufficient information is yet available to show how far the Congo was affected by the war. The Congo Estimates settled at Brussels in March disclosed a deficit of 856,000l. It was expected by M. Renkin, Minister for the Colonies, that the Central Railway would reach Lake Tanganyika in June. Touching the competition of the German line from the Lake to the east coast, he admitted that it would modify transport conditions in the Congo by attracting traffic which would otherwise flow to the west; but he deprecated exaggeration about German influence in Africa and thought it an advantage to Belgium that the Great African lines should meet in the Congo. New railway projects for the Congo, extending over 2,000 miles, were submitted to Parliament; but the war has deferred them indefinitely. Diamonds are now among the exports of the Congo, and the consignments to Brussels, on account of the Société Internationale Forestière et Minère, were reported to be of good quality. German enterprise, in Africa extended to Portuguese West Africa before the war, a powerful financial group entering upon the preliminaries of railway construction from the coast. When war was declared enterprise took the form of a military violation of Portuguese territory, a small body of Germans entering South Angola. Portuguese marines were landed and there was a frontier fight. There were engagements on two other points of the frontier and the Germans were represented to have been defeated. The addition of Portugal to the combatants in Europe was, however, prevented at the time by a formal apology through the German Consul at Loanda, and apparently the incursion over the frontier was a military error outside the limits of German war policy in Africa. It was an obscure incident of the war, especially as fighting was renewed in Angola. On December 22 Portugal resolved to take vigorous measures "for the military defence of the Colonies and also preparations for our intervention in the war in Europe on the side of Great Britain." The Labour difficulty on the coast and the islands brought trouble to a Baptist missionary, the Rev. J. S. Bowskill, who had been active in the native interest. He was arrested at San Salvador, and the Baptist Missionary Society made energetic representations to the Foreign Office. Sir Edward Grey, having received information that Mr. Bowskill was to be tried by the military authorities, telegraphed to Lisbon that it was absolutely essential that a British Consular officer should be present at the trial, and that the trial should be before a properly constituted civil tribunal; and he urged that immediate orders to this effect be sent to the local authorities. The result was that Mr. Bowskill was liberated on parole, pending inquiry.

Except for the visit of a squadron of Austrian battleships in May, and for such changes as the war may have brought, there is little to record concerning Malta. It was used as a place of internment for deportees from Egypt.