The lake district was neglected, however, until Cecil Rhodes, fearing the loss of more territory unless it was beneficially occupied, sent, at his own expense, an expedition of Boer trekkers to settle on the land.
Article III of the Caprivi Treaty was an important one, for thereunder it was provided that Germany should "have free access from her Protectorate (South West Africa) to the Zambezi River by a strip which shall at no point be less than twenty English miles in width."
The acquisition by Germany of South West Africa was of great strategical importance, enabling them to establish in time a system of communication by wireless telegraphy which covered the whole continent.
In Togoland on the west coast the most powerful wireless apparatus in the world was installed, and this was in touch both by wireless and cable with Berlin.
The Togoland station was also in touch with the wireless installation at Windhoek, the capital of German South West Africa, and with Dar-es-Salaam, the German port on the east coast opposite Zanzibar.
It is a matter for congratulation, but not on the statesmanship displayed by British ministers, that the fruit of the German essay at the establishment of a "new Empire" in Southern Africa was no more than the annexation of South West Africa, for it is by no means unthinkable that there was a possibility that in addition to the south-west the Germans might have drawn a wide belt right across the continent from west to east, taking in Bechuanaland, the Transvaal, Tongaland, and that portion of Zululand giving the Transvaal an outlet to the east coast at St Lucia Bay.
ILLUSTRATING GERMANY'S WIRELESS SYSTEM EMBRACING AFRICA.