WANTON DEVILRY ' IN PUTUMAYO.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 177, 26 July 1913, Page 18

WANTON DEVILRY 'IN PUTUMAYO.

; "Many of the principal oflic.ials of tie Peruvian Amazon Company are unquestionably guilty of the most revolting atrocities The crimes charged. against these men include murder, torture, violation, and constant floggings of a barbarous nature, and acts of unspeakable cruelty." Those terri'bie chargCi from -Sir Edward Grey's dispatch of January, 1911, are, unhappily, most fully corroborated in Ihe Report of the Select Committee on thc l'utamayo Atrocities, issued as i Parliamentary paper this week. The report, in fact, confirms the gravity and reality of thc atrocitieri, charges iSenor Arana and his partner with knowledge of, and responsibility for. tin; atrocities perpetrated by their agents, severely criticised and condemns the conduct of the British directors, for culpable negligence, and makes certain proposals wilii a view to preventing a repetition of the atrocities. Thc Committee do not a Imit exaggeration in the allegations, (in tne contrary: — "However great may be the reluctance to credit tiie possibility of diabolic brutalities of lliis kind, the truth of the burning of lndiar..s alive is. unfortunately, too well established by the evidence of eye-witnesses. . . ." The Committee decline to b-lieve that the Indians a,-.- "blo.jd-thir.-t v and ferocious savages"'; they think lac statement that they an- "simple people, of : naturally friendly disposition," gives "a ! fair account of the character of these hapless Indians, whose abominable and inhuman oppression is a. black stain upou civilisation." Coming to the question of British re- j spo risibility, the Committee are of the.' opinion that "the contemplated f.irma-j tion of the company had it? influence ; on the atrocities."' it being "mdispecs- ! able to show au increasinr: output of (rubber in the three years be "ore the I date oi the issue of the prospectus, &i

was, in fact, shown. There is no doubt that during that period there was severe pressure to expand the output of rubber bv terrorising the Indians.' | The Committee "find no evidence that ! before the 'Truth' disclosures the Bnitish directors knew of the murders or j tortures of the Indians." though Mr. I Medina, sen., one of the dim-tors, received copies of two Iquitos jiapers, w'hich gave, specific instances of murder Und outrage, which papers he showed to j another British director. Mr. Road, who, "too easily satisfied." destroyed them without showing them to his colleagues. | Summing up the case of the British 'directors, the Committee, whilst unable lUi find evidence that the British direc- [ tors made themselves individually ■parties to any overt act which would i expose them to a charge under the I Slave Trade Acts. "cannot absolve .[•■in from the charge of culpable negligence as to the labour condition,- that prevailed nn-.ler their company. . . No care at all was taken, and the employees were, in f.u-t. a gang oi ruffians and murderers, who .-hot apparently from lust of blood, or burnt, tortured, and violated in a spirit of wanton devilry." Thc Committee are convinced that Senor Arana. together with the other partners in the vendor firm, had knowledge of, and was responsible for, the atrocities perpetrated hy hi,- agents and employees in the l'utumayo. But they are also satisfied that he did not communicate his knowledge of the atrocities to the British directors before the '"Truth" revelations. it is to bc regretted, the report says, that the board of directors agreed to. and that the chairman actually movinl tiie appointmeut of, Sonor Arana as the liquidator of t-hc company, thus giving unfettered control over affairs in the Putumayo to a man whom Mr. Justice Swinfcn Kadv stigmatised as "the last man who should have been appointed a* liquidator." i- description with winch the committee cordially agree. CnfortunaU'lv. "the i'litirmavo is not ssin isolated case." but only "a shockingly bad instance of conditions of treatment that are liahlc to be found over a wide area in South America." The British directors of the Put'.imavo cotnpanv who arc shown in such an * unpleasant lisrht b\ the report arc Mr. 11. M. Read. Mr. J. Km-s-ll Ciiblim. and Sir John Lister Kayo. Their eir.must have tingled as thin read it. for whilst the Committee acquit them ot knowing about the atrocities, they point out forcibly how much it was their duty to know. Mr. dubbin hud -'s yc.irs of business life in Peru: Mr. Bead had a large knowledge of Peruvian condi tion.-: bulb of them knew Spanish, and if neither of them ascertained the devilish conditions under which I hey were making money, it was solely because, as Mr. Bead' cynically told the Committee, "it never crcv«ej his mind to inquire into the treatment of the Indians at all." Sir John Lister Kayo's position was different: he held no shares, was little more th.'.n a nominal director, and apparently only joined the board as a decoy-duck for investors. He had no knowledge ci; her of tlv country, or of thc conditions, or of the trade in which his company was en gaged: he did no; know the 1 inini.igc i:i whi.-h the proceedings of the lmard were frequently conducted. The committee do not he..-it ate to censure Sir John "for taking a. directorship under conditions so humiliating, and for allowing his name to be used e.s an inducement to attract investors into a company of whose business and proceed ings he knew nothing at all." Happily, in the Committee's phrase ology, these directors who have so "lightly exposed to risk the good name of England, do not. we arc confident, represent :i level common in the City of London."