CABLE NEWS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 623, 29 November 1913, Page 2

CABLE NEWS.

COOLIES IN NATAL. FIGHT WITH POLICE. Durban, We ine=day. A number of Indians c;,-p!oytd on the Hawksworth estate at Efpera'zia, on the south "coast, broke out 01 their compound, and cams in collision with the police. During the melee thrre Indiana were killed and twenty wounded. General Botha, addressing the Nationalist Congress, regretted that a false allegation had been circulated by irresponsible persona. Great, responsibility rested on the English and Indian press. The Government had exercised the greatest; consideration and generosity to the Indians, who really declared war against the South African laws. The Government, would maintain law and order at all costs, and do everything to see that no one in connection with the Natal strike was illtreated by whites. He added that the coloured races who looked to the whites for justice should receive it. The chief magistrate at Maritzburg, in sentencing fifty municipal strikers, warned Indians that they must protest against the head taj; crnstitutionaHy otherwise they would alienate all the whites. Leading members of the Opposition in Johannesburg, wl.ila opposing unrestricted Asiatic immigration, urge the abolition of the tax. The strike is extending to Zululand, and is affecting the sugar mills. A LUCKNOW PROTEST. Calcutta, Wednesday. A meeting of ten thousand Indiana of Lucknow passed a resolution of protest against the treament of Indians in South Africa. A sum of £I3OO was subscribed for a passive resistance fund. The Delhi Civil and Military Gazette states that Lrrd Gladstone's dispatches dispose of the charges of illtreatment, but, in view of the agitation in India, it supports the demand for an impartial inquiry. AMAZON RUBBER HORROR. SHOCKING DETAILS. London, Wednesday. Further details of ths Amazon rubber horrors are supplied by a traveller named Woodroofe, who voyaged the Amazon to Bolivia and who states that punishment in the shape of 500 lashes is common. Woodroofe supplied the reports to the Anti-Slavery Society. He has spent eight years on the Bolivian fiontier, most of the time in the rubber trade. He says that 15 or 20 firms dealing direct with Europe are concerned in the peonage system. One empioyer, who had six workmen sick of beriberi fever, told them that he could only feed folk who could work. The sick men were placed on a rock in the river ranids and swept away when the river rose. The Brazilian authorities opened an inquiry some time ago, but influence procured a cessation ol the investigations. Woodroofe says that ho saw one boy nog-ged so severely that one of his eyes was t>rn out. The Peruvian and Bolivian Governments are more directly responsible. Brazil is the only Government seriously attempting to protect the natives. Young chilrden and girls were often sold into slavery.