THE PRICE OF RUBBER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 95, 7 September 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE PRICE OF RUBBER

TALES OF HORROR FROM PERU. London. July 19. Sonic time rtf>o ;i young American railway engineer who had been in the Putumayo region of tli-i Amazon came to England with a terrible tale of the infernal cruelties associated with the rubber industry in that district. He had written a narrative soappalling that even men who had given credence to the tales of Congo rubber trade villainies refused to believe that the Ame rican was telling only the bare truth, and 110 London publisher would venture to publish his book of horrors. He was an unknown man, and the tale he told was too revolting for the public stomach. So Mr. Hardenburg, rebuffed on all hands at the very opening of his campaign, retired from the field. But he left behind him in Truth's care his notes and journals with an appeal for their publication, and at some considerable risk Truth set before the public in emasculated form the American's tale of rubber atrocities in the Peruvian hell upon earth. Other London journals followed suit, and in the end the newspaper demand for an official enquiry triumphed. There were difficulties in the way, one of the knottiest problems the Foreign Secretary had to untie being the fact that Britain had no treaty rights which would permit of intervention in Peruvian affairs. But Britain's responsibility in the matter was a grave one, for the Peruvian firm of Arana Bros., which is alleged to have provided the principal scoundrels for this inhuman trade, in 1!H)7 converted its business into a British company under the name of the Peruvian Amazon Company, Limited, with headquarters and shareholders in London and two English directors. It is not suggested that the Englishmen concerned in this company had any idea of the horrors perpetrated by its agents, but the action of an official in the London office, who, when asked by a newspaper representative for an answer to the charges of Mr. Hardenburg, handed hjm as an answer an envelope that was found to contain a banknote, was certainly most indiscreet. Sir Edward Grey found a way through the difficulty. The Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society instituted certain enquiries, and discovered that Alarco, a partner of Arana, had recruited some forty-six Barbadian natives—British subjects—to act as overseers in their operations up the Putumayo. These operations included murder of Indians and a still more grave feature, the murder of citizens of a friendly Power. Here was Sir Edward Cirev's opportunity, and he promptly seized it. Within a few days of that information coming to the knowledge of the Foreign Secretary, Sir Roger Casement was hurrying across the Atlantic to the mouth of the Amazon.

Sir Roger was the man whose terrible indictment of King Leopold's rule in the Congo roused everyone who read it into white-heat indignation, and sent thrills of horror through the land. Terrible as was his tale then, it pales in many respects before the disclosures now issued in Blue Book form to the public by the British Government. Towards the end of August. 1910, Sir Roger Casement had arrived in the vicinity of Iquitos. and within a month he had reached La Chorvera. the heart of the inferno. The worst fears were confirmed when Mr. McKinnon Wood informed the House of Commons early in June of last year that the Foreign Office had "received" the report of Consul-General Casement, which fully conlirmcd the information received as to the ill-treatment of the natives." {' Sir Roger Casement went to the Putumayo technically to investigate charges made against British subjects and to ascertain whether they were in need of assistance. This investigation involved an examination of the methods employed by the Peruvian Amazon Company to obtain its supplies of rubber. The modus operandi of the company was that of involving the Indians in debt, and then demanding practically a perpetual supply of rubber. Having drawn the entire population of some 30.000 to 30,000 into its web, the agents of the company proceeded to force payment iu prodigious quantities of rubber in return for trumpery goods received, the values of which were never fixed. Sir Roger Casement's report is one long recital of barbarism and murder. Indians shot down in their homes and villages, shot in the forest whilst collecting rubber, shot whilst acting ns porters. throats cut in public-, decapitations in villages, home and rubber stations, indeed, every word in this formal document is printed in letters of blood. One has to imagine this British gentleman and his companions compelled by circumstances to "hob-nob" with the chief criminals and required to "give no indication of our disgust." whilst their biiioil was ;illtt-1 \" boiling with indignation and chilled with horror, their stomachs revolting at the loatlijv tales they were forced tit listen to in their pursuit of the whole truth, and fearful lest they should betray the real purpose of their mission and so defeat its object. Then one turns the pages and realises the nature of the crimes committed bv the rubber agent* <n a British company, 'lhev "included innumerable murders and torture of defeucele:— Indian*: pouring kerosene oil on men and women and then setting lire to them: burning men at the stake; dashing nut the brains of children, and again and again ending oil' the arms and leg- of Indian- and leaving them to die iu agony."

Then Sir Roger Casement, loads his readers down into the loathsome depths of unthinkable human depravity. Me tells us that the while man's first object was to set rubber, and the Indians would always last his time. •'Me hunted, he kicked and tortured to-day in order to terrify fresh victims for to-morrow. . . . Each crime led on to fresh crimes, and many of the worst men 011 the Putumayo fell to comparing their battles and' boasting the number they had killed. Every one of these criminals kept a large staff of unfortunate Indian women for immoral purposes. . . . The gratification of this appetite to excess went hand in hand with the murderous instinct which led these men to torture and kill the very parents of those they cohabited with. Drink played a part with some. . • . . Revenue, too. called for victims. . . . . Jermin Yasquez. for instance, boasted on his return from Abyssinia, after a series of beheadings, that 'he had left the road pretty.' Such men had lost all sight of sense of rubber-gathering—-they were simply beasts of prev who lived upon the Indians and delighted in shedding their Wood." One passes on to page after page dealing with the sufferings of the wretched Indian rubber workers under the lash, in the stocks; suffering through the medium of fire, of water, and starvation. The lash spared none; there was no pity for old men, women or children; all carry the "mark of Arana"; and one reads of the whippers, too tired to lift their arms again, passing on the whips to other men standing by to continue the torture. "All classes of the native population were marked, some lightly; others with broad and often terrible scars " Every section visited had its eepo. or stocks, and its duly appointed floggers in ordinary. "The Indian is so humble that as soon as he sees the needle of the scale does not mark ten kilos (of rubber) he himself stretches out his hands and throws himself on the ground to receive the punishment. Then the

chief, or subordinate, advances, bend> down, takes the Indian by the hail, strikes him and raises his head, drops it face downwards on the "round, and after the face is beaten and kicked and covered with blood the Indian is scourged. Indians are frequently Hogged to death. Salt and water would be sometimes applied to theii wounds, but in many cases a fatal flogging was not even attended bv this poor effort of healing, and the victim, with maggots in the flesh, was turned adrift to die in the forest, or was shot." Sir Roger Casement say? "that flogging was varied with other tortures, designed to stop just short of taking life whilst inspiring acute mental fear and inflicting much physical agony. In these forms of torture these foul beasts in human form exhibited a diabolical ingenuity th.it would have made the experts 'of the Spanish Inquisition envious." To read Sir Roger's report is indeed to sup to the full on horrors. Some of his report is scarcely fit for newspaper publication, and enough surely has been (riven to arouse to wrath every man and woman worth the name and to warrant a world-wide demand for diplomatic pressure on Peru to force drastic reforms in this hell upon earth. There is one grim passage in this report, the proposal of Sir Edward firev that a religious mission should be established in this remote district. Such a mission must be a Roman Catholic one, since no other Christian denomination would by Peruvian law be allowed to undertake it.

It is, however, scarcely conceivable that the ruthless ruffians'indicated by Sir Roger Casement will be stayed in their career of blood by the operations of any band of religious mission. One would rather trust to the effects of strong pressure on the Peruvian Government by John Bull and Uncle Sam, with hints of the Big Fist to follow if their representations go unheeded.

As to who is to blame for the dark deeds in Putumayo, whilst excuse can be reasonably made for British shareholders in the Peruvian Amazon Company, who were almost in complete ignorance of the allegations, the directors cannot expect to escape criticisms. They knew the charges were made, they publicly denied them, they twice refused to meet a deputation from the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society which held documentary evidence which proved beyond reasonable doubt that the state of affaSrs existing in their territory was at least very had indeed. Moreover, the Board's envelope and note answer to the Morning Leader's representative scarcely suggested th.it its ignorance had been taken advantage of by those Peruvian and Bolivian fiends, who, in twelve years, shipped from Putumayo to London rubber valued at a million and a-half. Then as to the Peruvian Government. The Blue Book contains the Foreign Office correspondence with the United States and Peruvian Governments with reference to the prevention of the cruelties and to the punishment of the criminals. It shows that continuous efforts made by Sir Edward Grey to ensure prompt action 011 the part of the Peruvian authorities were not successful. In the end the British Foreign Office decided that it had no alternative but to publish the correspondence. as publicity afforded the only chance of remedy. Sir Edward Grey was fortified in his determination to publish these horrors bv the decision of the Peruvian Government to defer the presentation of a definite scheme of reform until January, 1913.