THE Portuguese were the first to arrive here. Their colonies at Mozambique and Angola are the oldest established by any European Power, not only in Africa, but anywhere in the world. Since the days of Vasco da Gama's first journey to India the Portuguese have occupied the East Coast of Africa, and since 1575 the West Coast. These centuries-old occupations in no way justify the development and maintenance of the colonies at the present time, and it is only natural that Portugal should lose some of her colonies, especially during the last century, when all the rest of the world was expanding. It was hardly appropriate that Portugal should rule over many peoples and lands on the basis of a power she once enjoyed, and that colonial possessions should be developed and strengthened by a motherland whose size was out of all proportion to theirs.

The distribution of the Portuguese colonies, which was widely discussed by the English and the Germans before the outbreak of the war, has again become a topic of intense interest. Angola especially is being spoken of on all sides as a possible future German colony. This kind of propaganda is neither intelligent nor useful. We must be on our guard not to lay ourselves open to the opposition of foreigners, at whose hands we may suffer all kinds of trouble. Both the English and the Italians have launched dif

1 From Vossische Zeitung (Berlin Liberal daily), December 19

ferent rumors which have disturbed the Portuguese both in Lisbon and in the colonies themselves. The Portuguese are extraordinarily proud of their past so proud, in fact, that they entirely overlook the fact that it is only a past and nothing more. In recent years they have become more determined than ever not to give up at any price what remains of their power and might. Nations who are desirous of dividing these provinces are so numerous and their rivalry is so keen that they are likely to assure Portugal the present régime for a long time to come, just as the Sick Man of the Bosporus still holds Constantinople.

Since the Portuguese were the first arrivals in Africa, they naturally did not take possession of the poor parts of the country- though on the southwest coast, to be sure, they simply set up a marble cross and sailed away.

Whoever comes from British South Africa into the Portuguese colony is immediately impressed by the amount of water here. How many brooks and rivers there are! The Portuguese took care above all else to secure the best harbors, and this has complicated the situation. In theory the Portuguese have always claimed the land between their western and their eastern holdings in Africa, and they have also endeavored to clinch this claim in a concrete fashion. In 1795 an expedition set out from Mozambique to Angola, but the leader died en route, and his followers returned with nothing accomplished. Later the English prevented the Por

tuguese from occupying Nyasaland, when Rhodes made his famous journey to Salisbury, as Rhodesia was then called, and secured its possession for England. But since the Portuguese remain on the coast, Rhodesians and all other inhabitants of the north part of the South African Union are cut off from their natural access to the sea. It is particularly galling to the Union that Johannesburg, its most important trading centre, and Witwatersrand, with its mines, must depend on a harbor owned by a foreign Power. This harbor is Delagoa Bay, which is much more convenient to Johannesburg than the South African port of Durban. Delagoa Bay was first spoken for definitely by Portugal in 1872, although it was the oldest of the Portuguese African ports that were used as stopping places on the way to India. Delagoa means 'from Goa,' in contrast to the southern port known as Agoa, meaning 'toward Goa' in other words, the last harbor on the way to India. This award by MacMahon was unfavorable to England, which only had a first refusal on the port. At that time nobody had thought of Johannesburg and the gold mines of the Rand, and the country behind Delagoa Bay was slowly being built up into a poor kind of Transvaal, kind of Transvaal, without imports and exports. At At another time England would hardly have let this port slip through her fingers.

Beira bears the same relation to Rhodesia and Nyasaland that Delagoa Bay does to the South African Union. Both are Portuguese harbors convenient for import and export trade, and their warehouses and docks have grown up in proportion to the increased business in the near-by provinces. If it should come to Portugal's giving up Mozambique with Delagoa Bay and Beira, the South African Union, as well as Rhodesia and Nyasaland, or rather

England, would never tolerate another country coming into this inheritance.

The situation in Angola is similar. Here the South African Union and England have vital theoretic interests at stake along the southern coast, which can be made of even greater importance to Bechuanaland and the Southwest. The most important point here is Lobito Bay, and the railroad that is being built from this port to Katanga. Lobito Bay plays the same rôle with the Belgian Congo and the French possessions that Delagoa Bay does for the South African Union and for England. Lobito Bay is the natural harbor for Katanga and Elizabethville in the Southern Congo, which have the same prospects of development that Johannesburg and the Rand enjoyed in their day, only here it is not gold, but copper, that is mined. Next to the Rand, Katanga is the most active mining district in Africa, and it is by no means sure that it will not occupy an even more important position. The movement of goods to and from this mining district is thus one of the most important questions in African business traffic.

The journey from Matadi to Boma, the only harbor in the Belgian Congo, need not be discussed here, because it is subject to so many hazards that it is almost useless. It is an impossible and costly trip, since shipping on the Congo is broken up half a dozen times by waterfalls and rapids, and in each case the cargo must be carried to the next ship. Traffic to and from Katanga now passes through Cape Town, Beira, or Daressalam, none of which is its natural harbor. For instance, the journey from Cape Town to Antwerp is about thirteen thousand kilometres, and from Beira fourteen thousand, three hundred, whereas from Lobito Bay it is only nine thousand, one hundred and fifty. True, the journey

from Daressalam is no longer than from Lobito Bay, but it is the costliest of all, because it requires several shiftings of cargo. Furthermore, this route passes through the Suez Canal, where the tolls increase the cost of transportation. In fact, the high Canal charges handicap the entire East Coast trade, and give the West Coast a tremendous advantage. It is even cheaper to ship from Beira the long way around the Cape than to take the shorter journey by way of Suez. When the railway to Katanga is built, all this traveling in circles will be at an end, not only for the places near Lobito Bay, but for those lying closer to the East Coast, which will turn to it as their natural harbor.

Under these circumstances, it is natural that the Lobito-Katanga railway should play an important rôle in South African politics. This railway will become doubly significant when the projected lines from Walfish Bay to Rhodesia are completed. These do not pass through a desert, but across the Vihé plateau, one of the best and most fruitful agricultural districts in South Africa, which, on account of its high altitude, is suitable for white colonization. That white men can live in the highlands of Angola is proved by the settlements of Humpata, which lies six thousand feet above the sea in the Hualla district.

The possibility of Germany's acquiring Angola is as slight as its desirability is great, even were Portugal were Portugal ready to cede the colony. Before the war Belgium had followed the activities of the German colony with mistrust and tried to put through the Lobito railway. Even to-day people in Belgium and in the Congo are speaking of the 'German danger,' although God knows it is founded on the weakest kind of ground. The close alliance between Belgium and France has much less basis in

European politics than in Belgium's fear of losing any of its rich possessions. It is natural, of course, that little Belgium should worry about her valuable colony. Belgium is also vitally interested that Angola, which separates the Congo from the ocean, should not fall into the hands of a Power that might threaten her in the Congo. People down there talk a great deal about Germany, but what they really are afraid of is the South African Union and England, which are much more likely and more able to take over Angola than weakened Germany is, for the time being at any rate.

Another alarming threat to the Portuguese colonies is Italy. The Fascisti have often announced that their political aspirations extend to all parts of the world, and they would be more than delighted if they could acquire Angola and Mozambique. This is why all discussions of possible awards of Portuguese colonies are of no avail, and only stir up fresh distrust and enmity against us.

Before we arrived in the Portuguese colony we heard a great deal about the mismanagement and corruption there, and of the housing shortage and high prices. We were therefore surprised when we landed in Lourenco Marques, the port of Delagoa Bay, and set foot on Portuguese West Africa for the first time. The harbor facilities there are splendid; docking, warehousing, and communications are adequate. The town that stood behind all this did not make at all a bad impression. True enough, the streets by the water front are too rough; but it is the same in all similar towns in that part of the world, and as you go farther into the town you find broad avenues with good shops, in which prices are apparently higher than in the Union, on account of the fall of the exchange. The town also boasts a plaza with fine trees and

flower beds, as well as zoological and botanical gardens, and a handsome residential quarter. Sanitation is not so bad as we had been told. There is a well-equipped hospital, and a distinguished doctor who studied in Germany, and who, at critical moments, will secretly confess his friendship for that country. This pleasant impression was strengthened when I went farther into the country. On my automobile trip to the border of the Transvaal I found excellent streets, prosperous farms, and newly built houses, which reminded me of California. The chief impression that this country and its climate which, by the way, is due to heavy rainfall made on me was that business was better here than in most parts of the South African Union.

When you are so favorably impressed with a place, you remember the time when you had quite an unpleasant prejudice against it. Lourenco Marques has been unfavorably compared with Durban, and people imagine how the town would look if it belonged to the Union. It was prophesied that Lourenco Marques would not only become a second Durban, but would soon be much better. The Portuguese city has many more possibilities. One of these is the port which Delagoa Bay includes. It is naturally far superior to that of Durban, which is now being dredged out at great cost; and, what is much more important, the distance from Johannesburg and the Rand to Delagoa Bay is much shorter than to Durban.

Not only in the harbor of Lourenco Marques, but also along the bathing beach, the contrast between Portuguese and English South Africa becomes noticeable. Lourenco Marques has a much better shore than Polana Beach in Durban, which roughly corresponds to it. The bathing in Durban cannot be compared to any along the West Coast, and Polana Beach was quite empty

only a short time ago. It was developed because people had seen Lourenco Marques and felt that Durban ought to start something similar. A hotel was therefore built at Polana Beach on a high cliff, where everything that was offered in the hostelries of Durban itself was provided. The Polana Hotel is an enormous building, elegant and comfortable, with prices to suit; but it stands alone, and its few guests cannot but feel isolated. When I arrived in the Polana Hotel my first thought was: 'Good Lord, what an enormous annual deficit this hotel must suffer. It must be as much as my entire income.' Later I discovered that the Government guaranteed it a thousand pounds a year.

Not only is Delagoa Bay economically part of the Union, but so is all Mozambique, or at any rate the southern part of it. Grotesque as this may appear, it is a fact that, in spite of the presence of six million black people, the Union cannot run its mines without the help of thousands of natives who come every year out of Portuguese territory to the mines of Witwatersrand. The reason for this is that all the work that in other parts of the world is done by women, such as housework, cooking, and care of children, is performed in Africa by men. Most of the Negro population of the South African Union is unwilling to work in the mines. Therefore the mines find themselves in a precarious situation whenever Mozambique forbids its natives to migrate to the Transvaal. In Mozambique this departure of black labor is looked upon with mixed feelings, for it is needed to work the farms. But the Government does such a good business sending workers to the mines that it does not like to call a halt on it.

The free passage of mine workers is one of the clauses in the Mozambique treaty, which also governs the traffic

with Delagoa Bay. According to this treaty, the Portuguese colony gets thirteen shillings a year for each worker who is sent across the border, and if the Governor has been having a bad year he can help himself privately to a small part of this. Up to the present time the two nations have handled the whole question of traffic to Delagoa Bay, as well as the release of workers, in such a way that constant friction results. England and Portugal have not yet agreed to any policy which would allow South Africa to annex Delagoa Bay, but the English have decided to open up a rival harbor in Kiso Bay, just on the southern border of Mozambique,

and this is no farther from Johannesburg than Delagoa Bay or Lourenco Marques. The old Mozambique treaty has been published, and no one can agree as to how it should be interpreted. In the meanwhile, provisional clauses have been put through.

England has an option on Delagoa Bay. Since this harbor lies at the southern tip of Mozambique, supports no hinterland of its own, and exists only as a transit port for the benefit of South Africa, Portugal could consent to selling it without suffering any loss, especially during the present financial crisis, when the purchase money could be put to advantageous use.

NIKOLA PAŠIČ is dead, and the Serbian peasants have followed him to his last resting place.

In every mountain village of Serbia, places reached only on horseback or by carriage, along roads deep in mud or suffocating in dust, one statesman only is known- Pašič.

One beautiful March day, when Dalmatia, radiant as a flower-decked bride, revealed its early spring charm to my eyes, I sailed with Pašič from Cavtat, called Ragusa Vecchia by the Italians, where his son-in-law has a little villa. Our destination was Kotor, otherwise known as Cattaro. As our vessel advanced into the magnificent fjord at the foot of Montenegro's holy

1 From Tilskueren (Copenhagen political and literary monthly), February

mountain, Lovčen, where rests the king of poets in his eternal sleep, deputations from neighboring and distant villages came aboard. From far-off Montenegro came these Balkan chiefs, wearing their picturesque national costumes. One after another they kneeled before Pašič and kissed his feet, in spite of his protests. He then returned their affectionate greetings with a fraternal kiss on both cheeks.

Pašič was a very small man, and at first he reminded one somewhat of a modest tailor in a Jutland village. His long white beard looked far better in his pictures than in real life, and his partly toothless mouth gave him a moping look. His small eyes seldom rested long on one person.

'A breeder of pigs, like the rest of