Germany’s method of developing her new possession in South-West Africa was entirely in keeping with her manner of acquiring it. From the first she proceeded to colonise on military lines. Railways were constructed with regard to their strategic importance; they were made on what is still called the Cape gauge; and were directed towards the Union border. A standing army was raised and compulsory service was instituted. An artillery depot established at Windhoek, the capital, contained a worthless collection of old gun-carriages and bales of locally-collected hay. This was to secure the colony against the imaginary evil intentions of the inoffensive and unarmed Ovambos, who inhabit the north-east corner of the colony. At Keetmanshoop, some hundreds of miles further from Amboland, but within 150 miles of Cape territory, was a great arsenal, furnished with guns and shells, rifles and cartridges, ambulances, transport vehicles, and military stores and supplies sufficient to equip and maintain an army of fifteen thousand men for two years. In the face of these facts and figures, we may be forgiven for doubting the honesty of the German Colonial Secretary’s denial that Germany ever had any intention of occupying, either permanently or temporarily, the territory of the South African Union, and of disregarding the expression of Lord Haldane’s pious belief that the Kaiser’s life’s purpose was “to make the world better,” and that in Germany’s method of colonial expansion, “she was penetrating everywhere to the profit of mankind.” In some ways the story of Germany’s annexation of the Cameroon provinces, and her subsequent extension of that area, is the most interesting of all, because if she secured her footing in East Africa by subterfuge, and in South-West Africa by the exercise of sharp practice supplemented by a certain display of bold decision, she edged her way into the Gulf of Guinea by virtue of no other quality than that of sheer bluff, but, having consolidated herself in the positions she had thus gained in West Africa, she allowed the world to understand that she was determined to expand her sphere of influence, if necessary, by recourse to arms. In 1885 Germany legalised her occupation of the Cameroons by placating France with an exchange of unimportant territories, and renouncing in favour of Britain her nominal claims to St. Lucia and to Forcados, at the mouth of the Niger River.