THE KAISER'S ALLIES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 147, 22 June 1915, Page 7

THE KAISER'S ALLIES.

I POISON AND DISEASE.

FIEN*DI6H WORK IST AFRICA.

(From Our Special Correspondent.) T.ONTTOV, May 7. \ Every day seems to add to the ap- • palling indictment which luraianity lias i to frame ngainst fierniany. Right on i top of Sir Jcnn French's report concern- I ing the use of lung-dcstruymg gasaes-at • Y.pre.s, the Secretary for xihe Colonies , isauefl a graphic report, from South-west . Africa. It seems that cm fhe occirpa- ' tkm of Rwakopmund last January it j was discovered that six wells had teen , poisoned by means of arsenical cattle- < dip, and. that in some/ tnsfcances' bags J full of this poison iverc found ai the ; bottom of the twcHa. General Botiha , thereupon wrote to Colonel Frankc. fhe 5 commander of the German forces, a lei- j ter of indignant protest, i-niormins him j that if such practices were persisted in, , he -would be reluctantly compelled to ■• employ measures of reprisal. The ( answer of Colonel Fraarfce was shifty and j evasive, but it contained some kind of 1 halting apology, intimating that, '"in ' order to prevent injury to the. health . of the enemy," instructions had been ] given that wvlls thus poisoned were to 1 ■be marked by/ warning uotdces. No such • notices were, howefcr, found at , f*vrakop.mtm<i, and in Ata.«ih a message r from a German captain to an ouLpo-st 1 was intercepted, -which revealed still more clearly the dastardly devke3 of J the enemy. The message read as fol- i lows: —'-flhe patrol at Gabih has been instructed thoroughly to infect with disease the Ida mine. Approach Swakop and Ida mine with extreme caution, and do not water there -any more." ' General Botha states that the German j troops, in their retirement from Ails, ( Warmbod, and other places, have con- j sistently poisoned all tihe wells along ( the raiiway line. So. as the "Tele- ( graph" puts it, "Reckless cruelty on the ; sea is equalled and surpassed hy diabolt- ' cal crimes on land. Poison, murder. , piracy, inhuman trickery, infamous ■ lyinjr— comes handy to these , violaters of truces and solemn encage- ; ments. these desecrator s of divine i shrines, these heartless butchers of > women and children. Their offences ; smell rank to Heaven; they call for venoreance from the mercy seat of Grace , itself."