Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/98

68 was, or what it was; but somewhere Germany had got a colony—wasn't that splendid!—near Australia somewhere a quite wild country full of cannibal savages and horrible fevers and things, but admirable as a useful "pin-prick" for Australia and Great Britain in order to obtain concessions and seize upon trade. The people in Germany who accomplished this swelled with gratified pride and at once talked of " our new Colonial Empire," and eventually set to work to form a New Guinea Company to develop this desirable acquisition. These people sat round tables in Berlin, smoked cigars, had many Krugs of beer, and planned the whole thing out beautifully—on paper. True, they were a little consciously shy—"We are beginners," they said humbly, though they did not really feel humble, and of course they felt themselves even then the Coming Race, the Successors of the Modern Roman Empire so palpably on the decline, and really the stupid Englander was stupid indeed. How silly was he about his bit of New Guinea! wanted to protect the natives and their "rights"—the rights of cannibals, indeed—and would not allow a white man to enter the country without permission. Here, indeed, was a chance—a chance for many things, for many a putting of the finger in the pie, for many a request or demand, and, Gott in Himmel, what fine markets in Australia for their trade! The cigars gave forth volumes of smoke, the beer went down wholesale, the "swelled heads" nodded in chorus—heavy nods, perhaps, for the heads were not empty. They resolved to subsidise steamboats to run to the new colony, and it was unanimously agreed that not a single thing required in the new possession should be purchased in Australia or at any British port, if it could be avoided.