The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10, 1917. THE FINAL PHASE IN EAST AFRICA

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2973, 10 January 1917, Page 4

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10, 1917. THE FINAL PHASE IN EAST AFRICA

The campaign ia Easb Africa is now far advanced in the third and final phase which it entered when the forces under General Smuts captured Dav-es-Salaam, the Gorman capital,, and the central railway which crosses the colony from the sea 'to Lake Tanganyika, When Ghneral Botha returned to the Union somo time ago, after personally viewing the operations in East Africa, ho told his audiences, in the picturesque language of tho veld, that General Smuts was "kraaling" the' Germans. But kraaling an onemy brokon into several small fighting bodies, and in a country nearly twice as largo as the German Empire in Europe, was no light task. The chief difficulties have been those presented by the country itself. In East Africa tho enemy has displayed precisely tho same wretched resources that ho displayed in West Africa. The average Germans in small numbers are no great fighters, even from their trenches. In guerilla tactics, in the open, they make a very poor showing. Sinco March, when General Smuts drove the main body out of British East Africa, the Gormans have been engaged in ono| long drawn-out retreat. And that nob only from tho north, but also from tho north-west, tho west, and the south-west. British regular forces, supplemented with Indian troops, and with native levies—tho latter the King's African Rifles— cleared the enemy from tho Victoria Nyanza country' in tho north-west; tho Belgian armies, operating on Lake Tanganyika in the west, drove tho Germans, with their native Askari warriors, into the interior; while- the Rhodesian and Nyasaland contingents prevonted any breakaway towards the south or southwest. In German West Africa General Botha won his chief successes by means of groat outflanking movements, and though tho same system has been followed in East Africa it has failed to yield thero any prompt or decisive success. Tho immense distances to bo covered, combined with tbo enormous natural difficulties of tho country, explain tho non-success of tho encompassing tactics of such experienced cavalry leaders as Generals. Deventer, Brits, and Smuts. But tho area possible to tho enemy is being rapidly lessened. Latest accounts indicate that most of tho German forces still afoot aro being rounded up in a number of localities along the valley of the River Rufiji, in the south-eastern part of the colony. British prisoners set freo by General Smuts as far back as tho beginning of September stated that tho Germans realised that they and their Askari warriors were never able to meet any portion of the British forces with the hopo of achieving a success, however small. But thoy were determined to cvatlo capture, so that no claim could ever bo advanced by tho British that they had conquered the country. All thoy aimed at was to retain their liberty, "until peace negotiations woro reached." It would, therefore, appear that the Gormans in East Africa—who have been long completely isolated .from .the outer world, through tho naval blockade of tho icoast, and the destruction of all their wirelCs's plants—wero aware that part of the German policy would consist of formal negotiations for peace. Obviously, the Germans planned, after their initial master-stroke had failed, that when it became clear the war was going against them, thoy would avorfc tho final calamity by pleading for peace negotiations. The plea for peace negotiations has now necn advanced, with typical German braggadocio 1.0 begin with. This is a curious fact, and one which suggests that Germany's schemes are long preThero can bo no doubt with respect to the correctness of the statements made by tho lato prisoners of tho Germans. Miss Mabel Packhard,, an English nurse, who had been a prisoner for two years, and evidently, having rendered services to tho German sick, was on very friendly terms with all ranks, may be quoted as a reliable authority on tho subject. Reuter's correspondent, in a message from Morogoro, published in tho Gape Times of September 8, 1916, says, inter alia:—"Miss Packhard, in the courso of an interview, said she had no serious complaints to make of her treatment. Sho also said that the Germans wore anxious to keep a footing in East Africa, and to maintain at least a form of government until peace negotiations wero reached. The ranks of the 1

German .Europeans, however, wore terribly thinned."

Germany's flag, wo may believe, willshortly disappear from East, Africa, never again to bo hoisted; among a. people, who have- been badly used by Mio Kaiser's officials, from tho earliest clays o£ German occupation clown to tho present l-imd. Horrible crimes have been committed during tho past year by German soldiers, and by Askaris their white masters, against the natives of German East Africa, that is, against actual subjects of tho Kaiser. Germany began her rule in East Africa by trickery and fraud, and maintained it by a system based on principles of deceit, aided by savagery. Even yet, no lie is too mean and contemptible if ib serve tho immediate turn of the German. Reuter's correspondent at General Smcts's Headquarters rccontly revealed somo of tho enemy's present-day methods. "The Germans, before retiring from any centre of population," he wrote, "make it a practice- to call together the Djumbas and lesser chiefs of the villages near by. A lecture on the course of the war, according to the German ideas, is given. A map of Europe is exhibited, and it is made to/appear that tho French, Serbians, Russians, and Belgians have' been defeated and pushed back. The lecturer adds that the end in Europe is near, and the success of the Central Powers cortain. When peace comes —'in two or three months'—the Germans say they will return, and then wo© betide any who have helped or been too friendly to the British. All suspects will ho shot." Peters, the founder of German East Africa, landed at Sadani thirty-two years ago, "and gained," says one writer, "a vast colonial territory by fictitious treaties which he afterwards induced the Sultan of Zanzibar to agree to by thoroughly Gorman methods." Peters's own version of how ho deceived the Sultan has the following:—"We mixed him a good glass of grog, and thus put His Highness in tho best of tempers. Then presents were oxchanged, and when _ dinner was over diplomatic negotiations opened, on the strength oi which the treaty was made." Of Peters in East Africa it is on record that "the cruelties and excesses which marked his career as an explorer and filibuster pale beside the enormity of his crimes as the representative of the German Government." Fortunately, this dark chapter in the History of East Africa is now nearly closed.