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PART II.-INTRODUCTION.

A classification of the British Colonies and Protectorates will be found in the Colonial Regulations Chapter I.

The greater portion of the Colonial Empire has accrued within comparatively recent times, though the first attempt at Colonial settlement, that of Sir Humphrey Gilbert in Newfoundland, was made as early as 1583. The Treaty of Utrecht (1713) left us in possession, in addition to the New England States, only of Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, St. Helena, two slave-trading stations at the Gambia and the Gold Coast, the Bermudas, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, St. Kitts, Nevis, Antigua, Montserrat, the Virgin Islands and Gibraltar. Until the great wars which marked the second half of the eighteenth century, we made but little progress in territorial acquisition. The States of New England, and the steadily increasing business of the East India Company, afforded sufficient outlet for our colonising energy; but when the progress of the Seven Years' War brought us into collision with France in North America and India, we were fairly launched on our definite career of colonial extension. The Treaty of Paris (1763) gave us the rest of Canada and Dominica, St. Vincent, Grenada, the Grenadines and Tobago in the West Indies. The nucleus of the Colony of Sierra Leone was acquired in 1788. By the Treaty of Amiens (1802) the Dutch ceded to us Ceylon, and Spain, Trinidad. The two Treaties of Paris (1814 and 1815) gave us the Cape, British Guiana, Malta, Mauritius, Seychelles, St. Lucia, and Tobago (which had been given back to France in 1783), and left us with a free hand in India and the Pacific. During the reign of Victoria we occupied Natal, Rhodesia, Bechuanaland, Basutoland and the Transkei, Zululand, British Columbia and the wide North West Territories of the Canadian Dominion, as well as Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania, British New Guinea and North Borneo. We also secured by cession Hong Kong, Labuan, Lagos, the greater portion of the Gold Coast, and Fiji, and we acquired by arrangement Cyprus and the basin of the lower Niger. During 1890 large additions were made to the Empire in Africa, as a result of the arrangements between the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Portugal for the delimitations of their respective possessions and spheres of influence in that continent; and, by the end of the 19th century the United Kingdom had established its claims to the exclusion of other Powers, over the wide territories now known as Kenya, Zanzibar, Uganda, Nyasaland, British Somaliland, the Protectorate of Nigeria, the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, and the Protectorate of Sierra Leone. A Protectorate was proclaimed over Amatongaland, now part of Natal, in 1895. In 1898 Weihaiwei was obtained on lease from China, as well as an extension of British Kowloon. In 1899, by an arrangement with Germany, certain of the Solomon Islands were transferred to the British sphere of interest. The Orange Free State and the Transvaal were annexed in 1900. In the same year Tonga, in the Western Pacific, came under British protection, and the Cook Islands, Savage Island, and other small islands were annexed.

British protection has been extended to all that part of the Malay Peninsula which is not in the possession of Siam, and the government of the various States is carried on in accordance with the advice of British Residents or Advisers.

Including India but excluding the countries held on mandatory conditions, the Empire now extends over 11 millions of square miles, or 91 times the area of the Mother Country. The area of the Colonial Empire alone is nearly 80 times that of the United Kingdom, and the estimated population is 64 millions.

Of the total Colonial area of over 9 million sq. miles, the self-governing Dominions (exclusive of the Irish Free State) cover about 7 million sq. miles, inhabited by a population of 23 millions, so that the area more or less under the direct authority of the Home Government amounts to 2 million sq. miles, with a population of about 48 millions. All but about 300,000 sq. miles of this is in Africa.

With a population so small in proportion to the vast area, and the facilities that now exist for the interchange of produce, there are naturally but few towns of considerable size in the Colonies, and though in Canada and Australia and the Cape there are considerable manufactures, the products consist mainly of raw materials. The aggregation of the population of Australia in the four large towns, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, and Brisbane, is very remarkable, more than one-third of the population of the Australian continent being crowded into them. This appears to be mainly due to the development of the external trade of Australasia, which is concentrated in these towns.

In the self-governing Dominions complete provision has been made not only for elementary education, but also for secondary and higher instruction. In all of them primary instruction is compulsory, and generally also free. Extensive provision has also been made for secondary and technical education and higher education provided for by the establishment of the following chartered and amply endowed Universities empowered to grant degrees, McGill College and King's College, Montreal, Trinity College, Toronto, and Bishop's College, Quebec, Laval University, Quebec, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and New Zealand Universities, and the University of the Cape of Good Hope; besides many other endowed Colleges in Canada and Australia.

In the other Colonies, as will be seen from the following pages, education has not been neglected, though, with inferior resources and in most cases a mixed population, the provision for this purpose falls short of the standard in more favoured parts of the Empire.

INTRODUCTION.

Since 1870 the Imperial troops have been gradually withdrawn from all the self-governing Dominions, and now the land defence of these Dominions rests entirely on their local forces. Of the Colonies, Gibraltar, Malta, Mauritius, Sierra Leone, Ceylon, Straits Settlements, Hong Kong, Jamaica and Bermuda possess Imperial garrisons, and Cyprus has one company of a British regiment stationed in the island. The naval defence of the Empire still rests mainly on the Imperial Navy, though, as will be seen from the pages relating to the Imperial Conference, most of the self-governing dominions There are Imperial naval stations at Simon's Town, Bermuda, now give substantial assistance.

Malta, Gibraltar and Hong Kong.

An account of the Colonial Conferences of 1887, 1894, 1897, 1902 and 1907, of the Imperial Conference of 1911, of the Defence Conference of 1909, of the Imperial War Conferences of 1917 and 1918 and of the Conferences of 1921 and 1923, is given under the heading " Imperial Conference." On the 4th of August, 1914, war broke out with Germany, and subsequently extended to war with Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria.

On the 11th of November, 1918, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Austria having already surrendered, the German High Command, not being able either to refuse or to accept battle, signed the armistice for which they had sued and hostilities ceased at 11.0 a.m. on that day.

The War affected the British Colonies in many ways. Apart from the contingents of troops which were raised and sent to take part in the campaigns in France, Belgium, Gallipoli, Egypt and Palestine, the German Colonies had to be reduced.

The first to fall was Togoland, which, on August 26th, 1914, was surrendered to a force composed of the Gold Coast Regiment, West African Frontier Force, and some French troops from Dahomey.

Australian forces occupied German New Guinea, the Bismark Archipelago, the German Solomon Islands and Nauru, while German Samoa was surrendered to a force from New Zealand on 29th August, 1914.

The Union of South Africa undertook the reduction of German South West Africa, and carried it out under the command of the late General Botha.

The German Protectorate of the Cameroons was conquered after a campaign lasting nearly 18 months, by British, French and Belgian forces, drawn mainly from British and French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa, with invaluable assistance from three or four British and French cruisers, and a contingent from the Nigerian Marine Department.

Kiaochau was reduced by a Japanese force, with a British contingent, in November, 1914, and is in Japanese occupation.

Troops from the British The conquest of German East Africa proved a long and difficult operation to complete in face of the tenacity and resource of the German leader, General von Lettow. Protectorates in East Africa, South African, Rhodesian and Indian forces, British troops and naval forces, and contingents from Nigeria, the Gold Coast and the Gambia, as well as forces from the Belgian Congo and Portuguese East Africa, were all employed before the campaign was brought to an end by the surrender of General von Lettow and the remnant of his troops in Northern Rhodesia on learning of the conclusion of the Armistice with Germany.

Apart from actual military operations and the despatch of contingents of troops, the war caused many changes, some of them beneficial to the Colonies, others the reverse.

It was soon found to be necessary for military reasons to intern Germans and Austrians residing in the Colonies, and to close down their business establishments. In some cases, the part they had played in the trade of the Colony was an important one, and their disappearance caused considerable temporary embarrassment to trade, though in most cases the remaining firms soon adapted themselves to the new situation.

Some of the Colonies had been to a large extent dependent upon Germany for a market for their exports, and their trade suffered considerably until new markets were found, mainly in British or Allied countries.

It was, however, the shortage of shipping, caused first by Naval and Military requirements, and subsequently by the serious losses due to the German submarine campaign, that affected the Colonies most generally and severely. The British and Allied steamers available for commercial work had to be diverted from their usual routes in order that they might be employed under Government supervision in carrying the most necessary goods to the Allies in Europe, and in carrying them from the nearest countries of production. The result was that some colonies were deprived to a very large extent of their ordinary shipping facilities. Towards the end of the war their difficulties were in a number of cases accentuated by import restrictions, imposed by the United Kingdom or other Allied Powers, as an additional device for economising freight.

Legal restrictions on the exportation from the Colonies to neutral countries of many classes of These export prohibitions were at first imposed with goods also hampered trade to some extent. a view to preventing goods needed by the enemy countries from reaching them through neutral countries. Later on, an additional motive became prominent :-the desire to secure for the United Kingdom, or the Allies, at not too high a price, adequate supplies of important raw materials for which neutral countries would otherwise have competed strongly.

The manner in which the Colonies generally accepted these various and severe restrictions on their trade, and did their utmost to conform to the wishes of the Home Government, affords a testimony to their loyalty, and to their devotion to the Allied cause, which is perhaps not sufficiently known and appreciated.

On the other hand, to some of the Colonies, the war brought considerable prosperity by stimulating the demand for their products. This was particularly the case with the sugar-producing colonies.

In the autumn of The period comprised in the second half of 1919 and the first half of 1920 was one of great trade activity and very high prices for produce in the British Colonies and Protectorates.

1920 a heavy fall in the prices of most kinds of produce occurred, which continued during 1921, and from which little or no recovery was made during 1922. As a result, Colonial development has been seriously handicapped, and much hardship caused to native and other producers and merchants. During 1923 some improvement in trade was witnessed in many of the Colonies, and this continued during 1924.

By the Treaty of Peace with Germany, signed at Versailles on the 28th of June, 1919, and ratified and brought into force on the 10th of January, 1920, Germany renounced in favour of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers all her rights and interests over her Oversea Possessions, other than those concerning Kiaochau, which were renounced in favour of Japan.

The total area of these territories was about 1,134,000 square miles, and the population nearly 13 million.

The Principal Allied and Associated Powers decided that German East Africa should be assigned under mandate to the United Kingdom, except the north western corner, which was assigned to Belgium; that German South West Africa should be assigned under mandate to the Union of South Africa; that the Governments of the United Kingdom and France should make a joint recommendation as to the future of the Cameroons and Togoland; that the mandate for German New Guinea, and the German islands in the Pacific (other than the German Samoan Islands and Nauru), south of the Equator should be assigned to the Commonwealth of Australia; that the mandate for the German Samoan Islands should be given to New Zealand; that the mandate for Nauru should be given to the British Empire ; and that to Japan should be assigned under mandate the German Islands in the Pacific north of the Equator.

At the meeting of the Council of the League of Nations in December, 1920, mandates to administer German South West Africa, German New Guinea, and the German Islands in the Pacific were approved and issued.

Great Britain and France, which had, by two declarations signed on 10th July, 1919, come to an agreement as to the boundaries of their respective spheres in the Cameroons and Togoland, submitted to the Council of the League drafts of mandates for these countries; but the Council was unable to deal with them either at this meeting or at the next meeting which was held in February, 1921.

At the meeting held in October, 1921, however, the Council approved in principle the division of those countries in accordance with those agreements and the application of the mandate system to those territories.

At the meeting held in July, 1922, the Council finally approved the terms of the mandates for the ex-German territories in tropical Africa.

At the Conference of April, 1920, at St. Remo, the principal Allied Powers decided that Palestine and Iraq should be assigned under mandate to the United Kingdom and Syria to France.

On October 3rd, 1921, the President of the Council of the League of Nations wrote to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom expressing on behalf of the Council the hope that the Mandatory Powers (England and France) would continue to carry on the administration of the territories detached from Turkey in the spirit of the draft mandates until such time as the position should have been definitely regularized.

By the Treaty of Peace with Turkey signed at Lausanne on July 24th, 1923, Turkey renounced all rights over Palestine.

At the meeting of the Council of the League in July, 1922, the mandates for Syria and Palestine were approved, though they were to come into force only when France and Italy had signified that they had reached an agreement on certain points relating to the mandate for Syria.

This agreement was reached in September, 1923, and the Secretary-General of the League notified the British Government that the mandates for Palestine and Syria entered officially into force as from September 29th, 1923.

The conception of a mandate proved to be inappropriate in the case of Iraq, where an independent sovereign government had been recognized by His Majesty's Government. The relations between Great Britain and Iraq were accordingly placed upon a treaty basis in 1922, and the Treaty of Alliance with Protocol and Subsidiary Agreements were ratified and came into force on 19th September, 1924.

The Council of the League of Nations by their decision of 27th September, 1924, accepted these instruments as giving effect to the provisions of Article 22 of the Covenant so far as Iraq was concerned.

In accordance with Art. 3 of the Treaty of Lausanne the dispute between the United Kingdom and Turkey as to the frontier between Turkey and Iraq on which the two Powers were unable to reach an agreement has been referred to the Council of the League of Nations.