Half of the copra raised in
the British possessions was sent to Germany and half of the oil from it
was resold to the British margarin candle and soap makers at a handsome
profit. The British chemists were not blind to this, but they could do
nothing, first because the English politician was wedded to free trade,
second, because the English farmer would not use oil cake for his stock.
France was in a similar situation. Marseilles produced 15,500,000
gallons of oil from peanuts grown largely in the French African
colonies--but shipped the oil-cake on to Hamburg. Meanwhile the Germans,
in pursuit of their policy of attaining economic independence, were
striving to develop their own tropical territory. The subjects of King
George who because they had the misfortune to live in India were
excluded from the British South African dominions or mistreated when
they did come, were invited to come to German East Africa and set to
raising peanuts in rivalry to French Senegal and British Coromandel.
Before the war Germany got half of the Egyptian cottonseed and half of
the Philippine copra.
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