EUROPE AND AFRICA
the demands of such far-reaching enterprises, they hesitated
to push their domains beyond the sea. “I approached the
matter with some reluctance,” said Bismarck. “I asked
myself, How could I justify it if I said to these enterprising
men [Bremen merchants with interests in South Africa],
that is all very well, but the German Empire is not strong
enough? It would attract the ill-will of other states.”
“We wished to hold ourselves free,” wrote Lord Granville
on May 8, 1882, to Lyons (British Minister to France), con-
cerning the proposed occupation of Egypt, “if the necessity
arose, to consider all possible forms of intervention, and to
choose that which was accompanied by the fewest incon-
veniences and risks.”
Motives sufficiently powerful to overcome this timidity
were soon forthcoming. In the name of humanity it was
urged that it was the duty of the Christian powers to pen-
etrate the wilds of Africa, in order to suppress the slave
trade and to bring the blessings of good government and
of civilization to the natives. In practically every treaty
from 1815 to 1900 affecting Africa, slavery and the slave
trade are mentioned. And King Leopold, speaking of the
work of the Congo Association, said: ‘Our only program is
that of the moral and material regeneration of the country.”
Again, it was argued that for humanity’s sake the Christian
nations should intervene in states where the peoples were
oppressed by the misrule of incapable despots or suffered
from endless internecine wars, until there was no longer any
protection for life and property or hope of freedom for the
masses. Lord Granville wrote to Lord Dufferin (British
political agent in Egypt) on October 5, 1882, that since
the rebellion was overthrown, it remained for them ‘to re-
establish on a firm basis the authority of the Khedive, and
to make provision for the future well-being of all classes of
the Egyptian people.”
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