The Australians have long feared that the possession of part of New Guinea by an unfriendly Power would be a danger to them, as it would afford an enemy a base for operations against the island-continent. The Queensland Government tried to get a footing in New Guinea about thirty years ago, but the British Government would not then lend its support. A few years later the home authorities were brought to see the necessity of occupying that part of New Guinea which faced Australia, and in 1887 it was added to the British Empire. It is now governed by the Australian Commonwealth.
Germany had only one other possession besides those which I have mentioned. This was Kiao-chau, on the east coast of the Chinese province of Shan-tung. Germany obtained it by force and fraud, as you shall hear. In the autumn of 1895 Japan emerged as victor from a war with China, and by the treaty of peace she was to hold certain parts of the Liao-tung peninsula. The Kaiser professed to fear the growing power of Japan, and he had a picture[133] painted to point a moral to the Powers of Europe. It showed the European nations confronted with what is called the "Yellow Peril," and called upon them to defend their holiest possessions.
The German view of the Japanese has been put as follows: "It is for Europe to look continually eastward. There is a yellow cloud rising there which betokens a coming storm. Who are these Japanese who desire to control the teeming millions of China? The Japanese are highly-educated barbarians. They have fresh minds, and they are the most imitative beings on earth if one excepts the smaller species of monkeys; they are not a civilized people. You may put a clever savage into a European dress or into a European-built battleship, but he remains a savage. Races do not become civilized in twenty years. Europe cannot allow the Japanese to control the Chinese millions, for the Japanese are without a soul." Well might the Japanese retort that if the Germans represent civilization with a soul, it would be to the benefit of the world if mankind remained savage.
Landing of British Forces on Tsing-tau Peninsula, September 23, 1914. Photo, The Sphere.
Professing to stand forth as the champion of soulful civilization, the Kaiser persuaded France and Russia to join with him in robbing the Japanese of the fruits of their victory. He only needed an excuse to interfere, and an excuse is easily found if you set yourself to look for it. In the autumn of 1897 two persons, said to be German missionaries, were murdered somewhere in the heart of China. At once the Kaiser was filled with righteous indignation; he shook his "mailed fist," and sending his brother, Prince Henry, to China with a couple of old ships which broke down on the voyage, bade him "declare the gospel of your Majesty's hallowed person." With these ancient craft the Kaiser seized a piece of Chinese territory for himself, and demanded that it should be leased to him with sovereign rights for ninety-nine years. In this way he obtained Kiao-chau, his Asiatic "place in the sun."
The protectorate of Kiao-chau has an area of about 200 square miles; it contains thirty-three townships and a native population of about 192,000. The whites number about 4,500, the greater part of them being Germans. Before the war, Tsing-tau, the port, was a powerful fortress, a first-class naval station, and a great entrenched camp, strong both by land and sea, equipped with the latest type of forts, and defended by a strong garrison. Twenty millions of money had been spent on the harbour, fortress, and naval station. The colony was very dear to the heart of the Kaiser, and he spoke of it as "a model of German culture." From Kiao-chau German influence was to radiate throughout the Far East, until the yellow peoples stood in awe of the Kaiser's name.
The great struggle which I am describing in these pages has been well called "the World-wide War." Immediately the Kaiser flung down the gage of battle in Europe the Allies began to attack his colonial possessions in Africa, Asia, and the Southern Seas. The German fleet was bottled up in its ports; no German transport dared cross the ocean; no help could come to them from the Fatherland. The German forces in each possession had to fight their own battle with such resources as they then possessed. It was clear to everybody that without sea power Germany could not hope to hold any of her colonies very long; they were bound to fall, and fall rapidly.
The Australian navy, assisted by our China squadron, put to sea immediately, and scoured the Pacific for German cruisers. A force of New Zealanders set sail from Wellington on 15th August, and, under the escort of H.M.S. Australia, H.M.S. Melbourne, and the French cruiser Montcalm, crossed the sixteen hundred miles of sea between them and Samoa. They reached Apia on the 28th, and the islands surrendered without a blow being struck. Before the war was a month old Robert Louis Stevenson's body was lying in British soil.