The Germans had retired to the capital at Windhoek, where they were said to have three years' provisions and stores, and had removed from Luderitzbucht all railway rolling stock, but had damaged no property.
Colonel Beves issued a proclamation formally annexing the town, and providing for the security of life and property.
Prisoners of war and non-combatants were sent off to Cape Town. The latter included a number of Cape "Boys" who had been paid their wages in German _goodfors_; and these expressed their delight at the British occupation. The _goodfors_ were cashed by Cape Town merchants for the "Boys," and were passed on in payment of amounts claimed from them by German subjects.
The occupation was conducted in the most orderly manner, and the late German residents of Luderitzbucht were loud in their expressions of appreciation of the consideration with which they were treated.
The Caprivi strip was entered by a force of police from Rhodesia, and within a few days Schuckmannsburg, near the Zambezi River, surrendered to them--and so a very unsightly intrusion into Rhodesian territory was wiped off the map.
In the early days of modern African history, when Portugal was at her zenith and her richly laden galleons were plying between the Cape of Good Hope, Goa, and Calicut, practically the whole of the trade of the east coast of Africa north of the Zambezi River was in the hands of Arab-descended "Sultans" and Portugal--who had extensive "settlements" along the coast.
A trade with India, which in the past has been the _raison d'être_ of more strife and bitterness than any subject--excepting religious intolerance, for which nations have contended--had been established for centuries, and the glamour of the East pervaded the whole atmosphere of social and commercial relations.
When the European nations started competing for supremacy in the east coast trade, which had always been a valuable one, the Arabs made the Island of Zanzibar the centre of their activities.
The island was only chosen as the headquarters of the supreme Sultan of the east coast and his palace built there at a comparatively late date, when the Powers had already begun to bring under their direct administration lands to whose native rulers they had hitherto only extended a "protection," a benefit which had not been sought with any spontaneity.