“The policy of the German Government will culminate in ensuring settled commercial and political relations with England and her colonies and the rounding off of our own colonial possessions.  We therefore demand Walfish Bay for German South-West Africa, the only good harbour, which, at the present time, being English, is closed to our young South African Colony.  Besides this, we must insist upon the East African districts, which we gave up in exchange for Heligoland, being restored to us.  This serious mistake in German policy must be rectified; for the abandonment of the Protectorate of Zanzibar to England was a blow, which not only paralysed the zeal of our best colonial friends, but also depreciated the value of our East African Colonies.”

“If I understand you correctly, Your Excellency, your policy is directed towards setting Germany’s colonial efforts on a firmer basis.”

“I certainly regard this as one of the most important demands of our time.  We must recover what the policy of the last centuries has lost by neglect.  At the same time that Your Royal Highness’s great ancestor waged war for seven years for a mere strip of land—­for tiny Silesia, the far-seeing policy of England succeeded, at a smaller sacrifice, in getting possession of enormous tracts of territory far larger in their whole extent than the entire continent of Europe.”

“But for centuries England has been a naval power, and obliged to direct her efforts to the acquisition of colonies over sea.”

“And what was there to prevent Prussia, centuries ago, from becoming a naval power that should command respect?  It was our misfortune that the mighty ideas and far-seeing plans of the great Elector were frustrated by the inadequate means at his disposal.  Had his successors continued what he had begun, Great Britain’s power would never have been able to reach such a height.  We should have secured in time, in previous centuries, our due share of the parts of the world outside Europe.”

The Prince looked thoughtfully before him.  After a brief silence the Imperial Chancellor continued—­

“Your Royal Highness may have heard that the Netherlands are firmly resolved, in the interest of self-preservation, to be incorporated with the German Empire as a federal state, like Bavaria, Saxony, Wurtemburg, Baden, and the other German states, after the Franco-German War.  The rich and extensive Dutch colonies would then also become German colonies; that is to say, they would enter into the political union of the other German colonies while remaining under the administration of Holland.  Our intention of repairing the wrong done by England to the Boers has made a very good impression on the Dutch population.  The Boer states will enter into the same relation to us in which they stood to England before the Boer War, and their independence will be restored to them.”

“Meaning self-government with the recognition of German supremacy.  Certainly, they are kinsmen of the Dutch.  But, my dear Baron, will not the German people be alarmed at the consequences of an extension of our possessions over sea?  Larger colonial possessions necessitate a larger fleet.  Think of the struggle which the allied Governments had to carry through Parliament even a modest increase in the German fleet!”