GERMAN MISRULE IN AFRICA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 48, 21 November 1918, Page 5

GERMAN MISRULE IN AFRICA

/■ BRITISH OFFICIAL REPORT

A DAMNING INDICTMENT

JT", 8 . report on the natives" of Southwest Africa and their treatment by iTorraany, which Lord Eobert Cecil recently announced to bo in course of preparation, lies been issued as a Blue Book, together with a parliamentary paper relating to certain trials in Ihe territory in question. The reporb has been drawn up by Mj\ Edmond. H. L. Gorges, British Administrator of SouthWest- Africa, and is based on evidence drawn from an examination of the German judicial and administrative practice, from documents, official and otherwise, found in the government records at Windhoek, from sworn statements made by Europeans familiar with the country, and by native chiefs, and from the writings of Herr Leutwein, Governor of the colony from ISM to 1905, Professor Bohrbach, Dr. Karl Dovcj, and other recognised German authorities. It can safely be said, it is stated, that •iu e n ,° inestion of,any importance. u- i. ii 1 tlle repi?l ' t (leal ' s ' concerning which the natives' own accounts cannot readily be confirmed from unimpeachable German sources. The compiler first sets out to give a brief outline'of the frays and means by which German -influence was introduced, and of the events that led up to the consolidation of that influence by subsequent annexation. In order to establish a basis from Winch to examine the matter and obtain a correct perspective, he also quotes utterances of. German statesmen and Germans as to Germany s avowed native policies, especially those made previous to 1890, when the Anglo-berman agreement was entered into, and which, ■ he observes, doubtless m " e n Ce Brltls h statesmen in deciding «?'• ?1° slmction German annexation of South-West Africa.! Part one of the report, therefore, contains a rapid survey of the history of'the country'from the time tho European first penetrated it, and shows the methods by which Germany established her authority over it, while part two is devoted 'to an analysis of the position of the '-natives under criminal law.

The time available for the - collection of material, and for a careful collation thereof, Mr. Gorges' writes, has been brief, but notwithstanding a large amount oi evidence is presented, which contains irrefutable proofs of the gross ineptitude with which Germany entered upon her scheme of colonising this territory, of .the callous indifference with which she treat. ™i' lre guaranteed; rights of the native peoples established there, and of the cruelties to which she subjected tho<o Peoples, when the burden became too heavy and they attempted to assert their rights.

Law for the Native. It will be found, he continues, that • Jr* ? ative tnere wa s. in effect, during the,first 17 years after the formal annexation of the country: by Germany, no Jaw, and that such protection us the law eventually provided was granted not out ol motives of humanity, bnt-'because it was at length recognised that the native was a,useful asset in the country, and that, without his labour, cattle ranching for which' large areas of country are well 6iiited, and diamond and copper mining, wore impossible. In chapter 15 it is pointed out how the German writer, Prolessor Roha-bach, condemned the extermination of the Herero tribe in 1915, because the cattle and sheep of tho Hercros shared the fate of their native masters. There was then no word of sympathy for the unfortunate Herero people, to' recognition of their value in the economic scheme of things' in the colony. That came later when the mischief, had-beeSi done.

' Germany," Mr. Gorges continues, "always kept the country a ulose preserve, as far as possible, otherwise it is reasonable to surmise that, had facts been known as we have the Powers who subscribed to the resolutions of 1834 and' 1890 would have addressed a protest to Germany." In concluding his preface, Mr. Gorges, while he'must in'fairness'say that them are notable exceptions to the general rule, as found in the Germany colony, men who take a keen and intelligent interest in their pursuits and in the welfare of the natives, and who treat their natives reasonably, ' but their • numbers, according to ths> information at his disposal, are relatively few. Enough should be found in this report, he 'concludes, to convince the most confirmed sceptic; of the unsuitability of the Germans to control the natives, and also to show.him what can be expected if the ■unfortunate natives of this part of Africa are ever again handed back to their former regime. For, their pahis in making statements, and for their share in furnishing the information that has been brought together herein, those whose names are mentioned, and their associates, would become, if indeed they have not already become, marked men, and their "removal" would only be a matter of time. A campaign of smelting out, the police sergeant, as the witch doctor, with all its attendant evils and horrors would most assuredly be ..inaugurated. Native opinion here is unanimously against any idea of ever being handed back to the .tender mercies of Germany, and any suggestion of the possibility of an act of that kind' on the part of Great Britain produces the" utmost consternation.

Unbroken Record of Bad Faith. The history of the principal, native tribes during 25 years of German rule, as given in the report, is an unbroken record of official bad faith and aggression, and of private oppression, ami cruelty culininating in,,the great Herero anil Hottentot rebellions of 1004 to 1907.

The first step taken by the Germans for extending their influence over the territory- was the usual one of entering into agreements -with the native chiefs, and Mr. Gorges quotes some interesting remarks by. Governor Leu.twein on the subject of these agreements. "It is not necessary to beiieve," he writes, "that the chiefs' sat like German law students over their 'corpus juris/ perusing tlje contents of the agreements with a view to getting a full knowledge of their contents. The specific provision!! i/' agreements did not matter.- the fact of their conclusion was sufficient. The manner of the carrying out of those agreements thus depended entirely on the power which\stood behind the German makers of the agreements. So long as the German Government in the protectorate' had no means of enforcing its power, agreements were of small significance. After this stale of affairs had been changed, agreements were, in practice, dealt, with uniformly without regard to their stipulated' details. So. the native, tribes were all in the same way, and -as a whole, whether this was arranged for in the agreements or not, made subject to German laws and German jurisdiction, and received German garrisons." Accordingly, iri defiance of its agreements, the German Government deprived the natives of most of their Traders and settlers robbed them of their cattle, their only wealth. Thus, whereas in 1897 the Herero people possessed. 90,000 head of cattle, ~in 1902 they retained'only .45,898, .while the 1051 German traders and farmers owned 4-1,487 between them. The natives were,reduced almost to a state of slavery, families even being separated to suit the. convenience of the employers, and they were eventually deliberately goaded into rebellions which were suppressed with deliberate and ruthless cruelty, and which resulted in a practical extermination of the tribes involved. Before the rebellion, numbers of the three princinal tribes, in 1901, were, according to the lowest German estimates. Hereros 80,000, Hottentots 20,000. Berg ' Damaras 30,000. The official German census of 1911 '-shows they then only numbered 15.0C0, 9809, and '12,800 respectively. t The account of (he suppression of the Herero rebellion forms one of the most tragic incidents in the grim history of the country. The rising was, from the outset, dealt with with the utmost ease by the Germans, armed with rifles, and guns, to which the Hereros could make no adequate reply, But. not content with mere suppression of the rising, the Germans decided upon the practical extinction of the whole tribe. For this purpose, Governor Leutwein. who was

apparently regarded as too lenient, was superseded by Herr Trotho, who had played a notorious part in the Chinese Boxer Rebellion, and had, just suppress-, ed an Arab rebellion in German East Africa by the wholesale massacre of men, women, and children. Trotha, on completing his plans, issued the "extermination order," in lerms of which nb Herero man, woman, child, or babe was to receive mercy or quarter. These orders were only too faithfully carried out. Evidence of the natives of other tribes, who wore, eye-witnesses of tne atrocities, ■ which took place, is presented in the report.. Even after the suppression . of the rebellion, the natives who survived fared little better, their treatment at Ihe hands of their German employers being of the utmost brutality. One of fho most significant documents in the report is the secret circular addressed in 1912 by Governor Seitz, then newly appointed to his magistracy. In it, ho states he had received information that a desperato feeling was becoming prevalent among -the natives. "The reason, he states, "which is unanimously given for this fact, is thah brutal excesses of Europeans against natives are alarmingly on the increase-it is mue'h to be regretted in this connection that even police officials have become guilty of such offences in a f»w cases-ami that such offences do not find punishment before courts.of. law, which thoy ought, to receive, according to the sense of justice to the natives."

j Reign of Terror, i Mr. Groves supplies statements by ! natives, made'on-oath, which give some I idea of the reign of terroi which exI isted among them, and adds Instances iof cruelty, injustice, and _ barbarism -might be'multiplied almost indefinitely. Instances of gross and bestial conduct, which for sheer depravity and immorality are well nigh unbelievable, are also contained in the file of affidavits, but they are hardly fit for Publication. " Part 2 of tho report deals at length with the position of the natives-before the law, in.theory, and in practice. It was not until 1993. after years of spoliation bv private individuals, that any provision' was made for the, hearing of civil sui's between natives and German.* the ordinance governing criminal jurisdiction over the natives contained provisions repugnant to anv conception of justice, Natives we-e not tried by ordinary courts, but by officers, who were charged also with' police duties, ami who were authorised to delegate their .indicia! powers to subordinate _ Punishments 6iich as imprisonment in chains and flogging were allowed, not only for serious, crimes but "as discinlinnry measure," on the application of the employer, or for offences against the Master and Servants law thus for insubordination, or for continued idleness and neglect of duty, terms which were interpreted verv'elasticallyProm records of the, German courts ii. is clear that the position of the natives in practice was far worse even than might have been expected from the theory of the criminal, ordinance. Native evidence was habitually disregarded, and they were not allowed to, give evidence on oath. While in punishing crimes by natives against Germans, the utmost severity was shown, crimes committed by Germans -against natives were either hushed up or treated-by courts with amazing leniency. A German magistrate, writing to the Governor in 1913,' attributes the prevalence of crimes of violence by Germans against natives to the fact that, in such cases "the courts are' absolutely useless." Executions were carried out in a manner which would have been considered brutal two hundred years ago.. Three out of every four natives convicted by the courts in German Souiji-West Africa, ill 1913. suffered a flogging, while only, one native was whipped out of every 150 convicted' in-the Union. In South-West Africa the 'total number of natives flogged 'exceeded the total number of natives whipped in tho same year in the Union, where the native population is twenty times as large. Moreover, while the rattan is prescribed in the Union, and punishment rarely exceeds . twelve strokes, a long ' "sjambok," which causes serious injury, was habitually used by ihe Germans,-and as many as fifty strokes "would be given. One instance of the methods by which justice was meted out to the natives is, the oaso of Lieutenant Venuloth, officer of the German forces.. This officer in June, 1915, caught two natives, one of whom'was a woman, whom he consiaered had been eugaged in the crime of sjock theft, and ' proceeded to hold a courtmartial on them, in which he 'acted as president of the court; and supplied practically the only evidence taken, with Ihe result that the natives were condemned and' shot.

Vemiloth was subsequently arrested by the British authorities and tried for murder, and the record of the trial has already been published as a parliamentary paper. The court which tried him observed that the whole procedure (in, connection with the court-martial) "was hopelessly bad. The ac-fused Vemiloth was "at once president and complainant. According to his own account, the only evidence was his own remarks and the statement of Sclmlze, ft member of the court. No charge was made against the natives accused. They were not present, no evidence was taken, they were convicted and sentenced in their absence. They were found guilty and .shot. Now it h difficult to mention any principle of justice and law which has not been violated if this court really meant to try those natives.

Ediuond Howard Lacom Gorge', who is responsible for collecting all the evidence in connection with the British Blue Book on German misrule in SouthWest Africa, has filled a number of responsible positions in the. Government of the Union of South Africa, being appointed Secretary for.the Inferior on the formation of the Union. For the first two j-ears of the war '.he acted as chief press and postal censor for the Union, and afterward went as Genernl Botha's chief civil secretary to organise the pub-, lie service and establish civil ?over"iie)>t in German South-West Africa. He is now Administrator of that Protectorate.