ever, that the British Government had acted in
a dilatory and ineffective manner. Sir Donald Currie had introduced a
deputation to Lord Derby, Colonial Minister in the Gladstone Cabinet,
which warned him seriously as to German aims on the coast of Damaraland;
in reply to which that phlegmatic Minister stated that Germany was not a
colonising Power, and that the annexation of those districts would be
resented by Great Britain as an "unfriendly act[439]." In November 1883
the German ambassador inquired whether British protection would be
accorded to a few German settlers on the coast of Damaraland. No
decisive answer was given, though the existence of British interests
there was affirmed. Then, when Germany claimed the right to annex it, a
counter-claim was urged from Whitehall (probably at the instigation of
the Cape Government) that the land in question was a subject of close
interest to us, as it might be annexed in the future. It was against
this belated and illogical plea that Count Bismarck was sent to lodge a
protest; and in August 1884 Germany clinched the matter by declaring
Angra Pequena and surrounding districts to be German territory. (See
note at the end of the chapter.)

[Footnote 439: See Sir D. Currie's paper on South Africa to the members
of the Royal Colonial Institute, April 10, 1888 (_Proceedings_, vol.
xix. p. 240).]

In this connection we may remark that Angra Pequena had recently figured
as a British settlement on German maps, including that of Stieler of the
year 1882. Walfisch Bay, farther to the north, was left to the Union
Jack, that flag having been hoisted there by official sanction in 1878
owing to the urgent representations of Sir Bartle Frere, the Governor of
Cape Colony. The rest of the coast was left to Germany; the Gladstone
Government informed that of Berlin that no objection would be taken to
her occupation of that territory. Great annoyance was felt at the Cape
at what was looked on as an uncalled for surrender of British claims,
especially when the Home Government failed to secure just treatment for
the British settlers. Sir Charles Dilke states in his _Problems of
Greater Britain_ that only the constant protests of the Cape Ministry
prevented the authorities at Whitehall from complying with German
unceasing requests for the cession of Walfisch Bay, doubtless as an item
for exchange during the negotiations of 1889-90[440].

[Footnote 440: _Op. cit._ vol. i. p. 502.]

We may add h