NATIVE LOYALTY.

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3053, 14 April 1917, Page 7

NATIVE LOYALTY.

MISSIONARY'S STORY OF EAST AFRICAN, CHRISTIANS. A meeting of welcome to the missionaries who have been prisoners of war in German East Africa was held In London recently, under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society. When tho war broke out there were twenty missionaries to German East Africa, six of whom wero on furlough in England or Australia, and fourteen wero on their stations. Of theso fourteen, as the Roy. G. T.'M'anley (secretary to the African Missionary) explained, all have been delivered from the power of the Germans. The Rev.-J. H. Briggs, in detailing his experience, said that at the first camp they wore sent to .things wero ■very bad,,-but an English prisoner wno had been, there some time said that they improved after the arrival of the missionaries. He said the guards were loss rude, the privations wero less. They wero thrilled when they heard war had broken out, and though they wero not discouraged thoy wondered what was going to happen to their work. Two of them had an interview with tho Gorman officer of the district, and he told them their missionary work must stop, as thoy could no longer be allowed to influence the natives; and the natives were told 1 that they, must cease to be Christians and tear Tip all the English books that had been givon to them. The missionaries wore also told that they would not bo allowed to work there again. The natives ; kept quiet, kept their' Christianity, and not one of them destroyed a book. Until May, 1915, they were interned, because the Germans said the English had interned German missionaries in British colonies. They were afterwards removed to a camp 20 miles away, and 40 of them,' including five ladies, suffered much hardship both in travelling and in the matter of food. Native black soldiers -guarded them, and theso men 'were rude an dnot of good moral character. Last Easter (1916) all'the British prisoners, 50 in number, and 40 native prisoners of war were removed to Tabora, and on tho journey thero wore huddled together for the night in a shod. Orders were given to the guard) that if any of tho prisoners got up or moved about they were to shoot. Thoy were treated better in many ways at Tabora, where they stayed till lastAugust, when all the missionaries r.nd the ladies wero turned out. The reason'given was that the Germans had just discovered there was an agreement between Great Britain and Germany that' men in Holy orders and ladies and doctors were not to he kept' as prisoners. ' But tho real reason was tho Belgian Army, was voly near, and the Gorman's did not want the Belgians to find all the missionaries interned in a concentration camp with a barbed wire fence around it. On Septemebr 19 tho Belgian Army came in, and the missionaries and all the other .English in tho camp wore set free. (Cheers.) Since ho had been back in England he had heard' rumours that there was a chance that German East Africa might be returned to the Germans. Ho hoped it was not true, and that those who had : influence with tho Government would do their utmost to prevent such an iniquitous thing taking place. If the country wero given back, it would mean the death of about j 75 per cent, of tho native population. | The Rev. E. W. Doulton narrated an i incident of camp life at Tabora which j illustrated the cruelty practised by ths i Germans. In May last he was sent j for by the Deputy-Governor, and found j himself before a court-martial. He was j charged with having taught helio- ! graphy to,tho native Christians, with inciting Tabora to rebel against the Germans, and many other things, all of them a base fabrication. How did the Germans collect evidence against

I-him? ,'fliey arrested some of the.jia,tive Christians and teachers, and questioned them about the instructions they had received in the art'of heliograph}', and so forth. When they said they had received no instructions they were thrown down and brutally flogged with made of hippopotamus hide until the soldiers were tired, out. .The majority of the Christian' natives were faithful—(cheers)—but after 55 lashes two or three were compelled to perjure themselves. 'When Dr. Westgate and himself were before the court-martial and confronted with one of these' men there was a dramatic scene, which ho would never forget. The young African Christian stood before the Court and declared that the things he had been forced to say wore all lies. . "Now you can kill me; I have nothing more to say," he added. REMARKABLE SERMON IN ROME. PATRIOTIC DEMONSTRATION. "A sensation has boon caused in Rome by the eloquent sermon of the Franciscan friar, Padre Michel Angelo Draghetti, which ended with a prayer for a victorious peace for Italy and tho Allied armies," says the "Tclegraph'o" Milan, correspondent^ "The peculiarity of this event is that for the fust time such a sermon lias been openly preached in the Pope's own diocese, and, as the Franciscan friar gavo his congregation to -understand, with moro or. less direct approval by the Pope. The sermon was delivered in the ohurch of Sant Andrea della Valle, before a crowded congregation, and the preacher, after thrilling his hearers by his words of patriotism, faith, and enthusiasm, was applauded spontaneously by the entire congregation, who rose to their feet as he concluded with an impassioned appeal that all the blood shed on' tho battlefields for the cause of humanity and Christian civilisation by the Allies should not bo shed in vain. ■ "Such a demonstration is extremely unusual inside Roman Catholic churches, and is all the moro striking becauso it occurred in Rome. Many officers and soldiers were in the congregation, and they were tho first to rise and applaud. "The sensation was heightened when the friar declared that before preaching he had had the honour of kneeling at- the feet of Pope Benedict XV, who encouraged him to tell the faithful of Rome and of all Italy to pray to God for a victorious peace in the namo of civilisation, the peace of Christ which should be tho triumph of charity, of fraternity, of justice, and of right."