SEDITION IN AFRICA.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 December 1921, Page 3

SEDITION IN AFRICA.

NATIVES SENTENCED. By Telegraph.-—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Dec. 5, 5.5 p.m. Capetown, Dec. 3. The hearing was completed at Queenstown, after lasting eight days, of the case in which Enoch, prophet of a fanatical religious sect known as the Israelites, was charged with sedition along with 130 of his followers, whose resistance to the authorities led to a serious affray and heavy loss of life at Bulhoek in December last. All were found guilty. Enoch and two other ringleaders were sentenced to six years' imprisonment, thirty office bearers t.* three years and the rank and file to eighteen months each, while the old men and boys who took part received two years suspended sentence. The Judge commented severely on the withdrawal of the police when the trouble threatened. It was unheard of in the history of our intercourse with the Natives for a well-armed body to retire before a badly-armed crowd of Natives. Such action had an extremely bad effect, but he exonerated the police, in view of their action when it was finally decided to compel the Israelites to obey authority. The Judge declared that Enoch had used religion as a cloak for a seditious movement against the whites.