German and Italian Interests in Africa

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THE entry of Germany into the League of Nations was preceded by a well organized propagandist movement for the return of some of her lost colonies and a demand that the price of her adhesion to the League should be the allotment to her of mandates in Africa. From one end of the Fatherland to the other the question was discussed in all its aspects and the movement was staged and managed with uncommon skill by the various colonial bodies, led by the "Korag," or Union of Colonial Societies, so named after the initial letters of its title, Koloniale Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft. This federation is stated to represent some thirty different societies, composed of over 400,000 members; the principal member organization, the Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft, acts under the presidency of Dr. Seitz, a former Governor of German South-West Africa, who is also president of the "Korag."

Although there is a tendency in some quarters to belittle the influence of these organizations and to consider the movement they represent as of small practical importance, it must be remembered that Germany's slow emergence as a colonial Power in the 'eighties and 'nineties of the last century was heralded and supported by exactly similar societies which by constant propaganda in the chief cities of the empire, and particularly in the old Hanseatic centers, at length compelled the government to enter upon the thorny path of colonial expansion...