CRUELTIES IN PERU.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1529, 27 August 1912, Page 5

CRUELTIES IN PERU.

♦ . L ALLEGED RUBDER ATROCITIES, I RESULT OF FOREIGN OFFICE [ INQUIRY, i A Foreign Office Blue-book issued on • : July 13 contains a report and correspondi enco upon the treatment of i British i coloniaf subjects and native Indians cmi ployed in tho collection of rubber for the Peruvian Amazon Company in the Putaniayo region of Pern. Two years ago a commission of inquiry was appointed by that company to report ■ on the possibilities of commercial dovelopi ment of their properties. Sir E. Grey thereupon instructed Consul-General Casei ment to proceed to Peru at tho same time i and ascertain whether any British sub- ; jects had suffered or were in distress, and if so from what causes, and whether they stood in need of relief. Ho was to arrive ; at an independent and impartial con- ■ elusion. The River Putamayo, which traverses '* ' the scene of operations, is in tho north of Peru, and tho company's principal station, i La Chorrera, will bo found on tho map claso to the south boundary of Colombia. Hero the Consiil-Genera! arrived at the . samo time as the company's commission, on September 22, 1910. This company waa registered in England. The preliminary summary of his observations and of the evidence- ho collected, w-hich Consul-Gonoral Casement handed to the Foreign Office on his arrival in, Lou- - don, dated January 7, 1911, says:— '' "The Indians almost e.vcrywhoro bore evidence of being flogged, in many cases of l>emg brutally flogged, and the marks of tho lash were not confined to men nor adults. Women .and even littlo children wero more than once found their limbs scarred w.ith weals left by tho thong of twisted tapir-hide, which is tho chief implement used for coercing and terrorising tho native population of tho region, traversed.. "The Crimes charged against many men now in tho employ of tho Peruvian Amazon Company are of tho most atrocious kind, including murder, violation, . and constant flogging." Appended is a list of thoso stated to bo the worst criminals—sixteen names, of ■ which four are described as chiefs of districts, all charged with atrocious offencca against Indians. Sir E. Grey telegraphed these names and a summary of tho charges for com- ■ munication to the Peruvian Government, stating that measures should bo taken immediately to bring theso criminals to justice or tlicy would escape, adding: "Any impression that such crimes wero to go unpunished, or that thore was tho least chanco of their being repeated, would bo most deplorable, and could not ■ fail to arouse strong feeling." / ' The British representative's detailed report of the mothods employed for. rnl>ber collection was submitted in March. Ho says: "All classes of the, nativo population, young as well as old, women mid children, youths and girls, were marked, samo only lightly, others with.broad aud often terrible scars. Some of these marks wero ' '. old, some quito recent, and in more thaw . one caso young men were brought to me with raw scars, with the request that I might givo same healing lotion. I was told by ft. resident wno had spent nearly' six years_iu the region, and who himself confessed to mo that he constantly (logged Indians—women as well as men—that "" fully 00 per cout. of the entire population bore traces of theso floggings. lam indined to think it was approximately cor- . . . reet. "Indians. were flogged not only for ' shortage in rubber, but still more grievously if they dared to run away from their houses, and,by flight to a distant region to escapo altogether from the tasks laid upon them. Such flight as this waa counted a capital offence, and tho fugitives, if captured, were as often tortured and put to death ns brutally flogged. peditions were fitted out and carefully planned to track down and recover tho fugitios, however far tho flight might have been," The Peruvian Minister for Foreign Affairs has sent the following telegram to London in reply to tho charges of cruelty! made in Sir ft. Casement's report:— "Theso crimes were committed bofora 1907, and could not bo promptly suppress-' ed as they took place in wild forest regions remote from all inhabited centres. The Peruvian Government has taken and continues to tako the necessary steps to punish the guilty parties, and to prevent all possibility cf a repetition of suclil outrages by sending to tho Putuinayo a Peruvian judical commission which in making every effort to capture the culprits, and by appointing another commission for tho purpose of introducing <lefinite reforms in ihat region. "There, is every , certainty that finch," crimes aro no longer committed, and that tho welfare of tlio Indians is assured. Tho Peruvian Government will shortly issue a detailed report on tho subject."