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538 (B. W. D.)

CAMERON, JAMES DONALD (1833-1918), American poli- tician (see 5.109), died at his country home, Lancaster co., Pa., Aug. 30 1918.

CAMEROON (Fr. Cameroun, Ger. Kamerun; see 5.110). By the Franco-German agreement of Nov. 4 1911 some 107,200 sq. m. of French Equatorial Africa were added to the German pro- tectorate, while 6,450 sq. m. of Cameroon in the Lake Chad region were ceded to France. An Anglo-German agreement of March n 1913 settled the frontier of Nigeria and Cameroon between Yola and the Cross river. By the agreement with France the area of Cameroon was increased from about 191,000 sq. m. to 292,000 sq. m. and the pop. from some 2,600,000 to about 3,300,000. In 1913 the white inhabitants numbered 1,871, of whom 1,643 were German.

The additions to Cameroon were " compensation " to Ger- many for the assumption by France of a protectorate over Morocco (see, History). They included two tongues of land running S.E. from the main bulk of the protectorate, one along the valley of the Sanga to its junction with the Congo, the other reaching the Ubangi. Cameroon thus obtained contact with Belgian Congo and full access to the navigable waters of the Congo basin, while the French colony of Middle Congo was cut into fragments. The transfer of territory took place in 1912 and the Germans established military and trading posts both on the Congo and Ubangi. There had been, however, insufficient time to develop the newly acquired territories before the World War put an end to German sovereignty.

Progress was made during 1907-13 in the development of the economic resources of the country, which consisted principally of palm kernels and palm oil, rubber, cocoa, ivory, timber and live stock. Forests coyer some 50,000 sq. m. of the country and over 60 % of the wood is of commercial value. The plantations of cocoa and rubber largely increased and a beginning was made in coffee-growing. The value of trade, imports and exports, was about 3,000,000 in 1913, compared with 1,700,000 in 1907. Revenue continued to be below the cost of administration, the figures for 1913-4 being: revenue 565,000, expenditure 86.^,000. Deficits were made good by grants from the German treasury. Some progress was made in railway construction, two main lines being undertaken. The first started from Duala, in the Cameroon estuary and the principal port, and went S.E. by Edea towards the central plateau; the second started from Bonaberi, on the Cameroon estuary opposite Duala, and, skirting Mt. Cameroon, was designed to go N.E. towards Lake Chad. In 1913 a direct cable from Duala to Germany was opened and in 1914 wireless telegraphic stations were erected.

Under Dr. T. Seitz's governorship (1907-10) the adminis- tration endeavoured to remedy the worst abuses in native affairs, and revolts became less frequent. The Moslem Fula chiefs in the northern region were patronized and comparatively little interfered with, slavery being continued. Dr. Seitz, on his transference to South-Wcst Africa, was succeeded by Dr. Gleim, who in 1912 gave place to Herr Ebermeier, the last German governor. He was assisted by a council on which sat three nominated representative merchants. The seat of Government was at Buea, on the slope of Mt. Cameroon.

Cameroon was invaded in Sept. 1914 by British and French (native) troops under the command of Maj.-Gen. Dobell supported by H.M. SS. "Cumberland," "Challenger" and "Dwarf" under the command of Capt. Cyril Fuller, R.N. Duala was shelled and thereupon evacuated, and the last German garrison surrendered in Feb. 1916.

After' the conquest of the protectorate the country was provisionally divided into areas administered respectively by French and British authorities. At first the British administered the Duala region, but it and the whole estuary of the Cameroon river was subsequently transferred to French control, the British retaining charge of the port of Victoria, the hill-station at Buea, and a strip of territory averaging 70 to 80 m. in width from W. to E. flanking the E. boundary of Nigeria. The Supreme Council, sitting in Paris on May 7 1919, gave the mandate for Cameroon to France and Great Britain. By an agreement be- tween those Powers concluded on July 4 1919 Britain finally retained the strip of ex-German territory bordering Nigeria. This British strip included in the south Mt. Cameroon and in the north Dikoa and the adjacent parts of "German" Bornu. The rest of Cameroon, 166,500 sq. m. out of the 191,000 sq. m. of the protectorate as constituted in 1910, fell to France. Those districts which the French had been compelled to cede to Germany in 1911 were reincorporated in French Equatorial Africa and formed no part of the mandated territory. In the mandated area no discrimination in respect to trade could be made in favour of French citizens as against nationals of other states, members of the League of Nations.

During 1920 a provisional boundary was determined by British and French officers who met at various points and this was to remain in force until a commission could be entrusted with the final work of demarcation.

The southern portion of the British area was constituted a province of Nigeria under the administration of a senior resident. The remainder of the territory is incorporated for administrative purposes in the provinces of Muri, Yola and Bornu, to which portions of it adjoin; but in every instance the accounts of the occupied area are kept separate from those of Nigeria in order that detailed accounts showing the revenue collected and the expenditure incurred can at any moment be produced.

Politically the most important additions to territory under British rule are the Emirate of Dikoa, which has been reunited to