Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/135

Rh my nationality requires over the endeavours of Germany to found a colony, and people are much too amiable and kind to me to make it possible for me to be patriotically nasty. They are so anxious one should be pleased and admire all they have done, and in this hot weather it saves trouble to be amiable and interested—and I am genuinely interested, for the colonisation of a new land engages my sympathies too sincerely to let me care whose land it is. It seems to me it must be one of the finest and most fascinating of positions to have the power to create a great deal out of untouched Nature. The worst is, the grain of salt one must apply to all tales is a large one here.

On a height above the—well, the few wooden bungalows and sheds is the house of the Governor of all these German possessions, Herr von Bennigsen, son of the well-known statesman of that name. I remembered meeting his distinguished father many years ago in Hanover. He, the Governor, however, resides in a four-roomed house lower down, which also serves as Government Buildings. [Dr. Hahl is now Governor, and has about ninety officials under him in the German Protectorate.] The new Government House, a wooden bungalow of a few rooms, was made in Germany and shipped out. When it got to Singapore only half of it, and a builder shipped with it, could be taken by the Stettin, and the other half had to lie in Singapore for some months till the Stettin returned for it. The wood—quite unsuitable for the climate—was all warped and strained, and now that at last they have got it up the white ants are going to eat it down. Here is the most magnificent timber in the world, and quantities of it; but the Wise Men of Berlin knew better than the French bishop, and never