RUBBER HORRORS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1634, 28 December 1912, Page 14

RUBBER HORRORS.

TERRIBLE STORY OF ATROCITIES, CONSUL ON PUTUMAYO CONDITIONS. Sir Roser Gasoment, whose report on the rubber horrors of Putumayo officially exposed tlio cruelties perpetrated in that region, had a sheeting story to tell on November 13 before tlio Select Committee which is inquiring into the responsibility of the British directors of tho Peruvian Amazon Co.

Sir Roger said tho company had accepted the truth of his report. There was no foundation for tho statement that the atrocities had been caused through the action of British or American firms and syndicates who "jumped" claims or territory in Putumayo.

The chairman.: Then are tho Arana Bros, responsiblo?—l suggest they aro criminally responsible. Discussing the system in Putumayo, Sir Roger said that in his opinion it had not grown up by chance or neglect. '"I think," he added, with intense feeling, "that this criminal system was deliberately designed. Tho Putumayo directors were, in my opinion, cognisant of things in Putumayo." Covering Up tho Crimes. Raids had been carried out on certain Columbian estates. Nativos wcro murdered, their houses taken possession of, and their property confiscated. In one case 23 tons of rubber found in a Columbian trading settlement wero actually brought to London as the property of thq Putumayo Amazon Company. Senor Arana was perfectly aware of that. Ho visited the region subsequent to thoso crimes.

Tho chairman: To see what should bo done?—No, in order to cover up tho crimes.

Men wore sent out with Winchester rifles to catch Indians, just as though they wero. wild animals. Thoso who ran -away were shot down, and. tho Indians, after being driven from their homes, were hunted in the forests. After capture, if they collected too little rubber, they wero flogged, and if they ran away commissions armed with' Winchester rifles ■were .sent out to shoot them.

The chairman: The company used British subjects to collect rubber by a'series of crimes and murders which were punishable? ' Witness: I have no doubt they used their subjects in a criminal-way. . A Reign of Terror. .„ "The essence of the system was terror," declared the witness. Sir Roger had several consultations with the directors. "But I soon realised," he said, "that tho directors were much more preoccupied with their financial position. Unless tho oompanv oould bo saved there was no possibility of the oompany making' anv reforms. Their position' was very difficult, for Arana was in ' effective ownership." "I made it 'quito oleai:_ that the whole thing was organised . piracy," said Sir Roger, speaking of his interviews with, the board in London. He believed the Putumayo conditions were now improved. 1 The chairman: Two directors who habitually sat in London as a matter of fact knew of these criminal methods; they knew that their ■ firm was using- British subjects for the purposes of . murder?— I have no doubt of , it.

The chairman: It by no means follows from that that that knowledge was. communicated -to the British directors?— No.

The chairman: But that knowledge was in the London office when those two gentlemen were there?— Yes. . "I Went Unarmed." "Was it necessary for any agent of the company to go armed?" asked Lord Alexander Thynne. "I went unarmed," replied Sir Eoger, laconically. - An Englishman and an Australian were among thoso employed in the Putumayo. The Englishman, a young man, who acted as storekeeper, told Mm that, "the whole thing was organised piracy.", Tho Australian thought his inquiry was an unwarrantable interference, and was subsequently heard to.-, remark: "If ho had gone to the district where I used to work he would have been shot, and serve him jolly well right, too." (Laughter.) Replying to Mr. Joyason .Hicks, witness said, that when he , saw , the British directors ho told them that they were presiding over a system of organised piracy. - . Mr. Joynson Hicks: Did they throw up their hands in holy horror ?—I think they wero very much ashamed of what had taken place.

Mr. Joynson Hicks: But didn't they deny it?

Witness: They had already denied it, and I think the Foreign Office had accepted it, or had placed oil record its belief that the . British directors, were not responsible. .. . ..

Abominably Cruel. Sir Roger stated that some 30,000 Indians had disappeared from the territory within a short period of years,, and most had fled in terror from the Arauas. Others had died' of hunger. and exposure. "I myself saw a woman who could not •walk any further," said Sir Eoger. "I took the load from her back and threw it away in the forest, and set 6ome of my men to guard her lest she should bs flogged by Arana. The things that went on were abominably cruel." In the books in 1911 there appeared an item )f .£4600 owed to the company by the Peruvian Consul-Gleneral. "Was. that, a bribe?" asked Mr. Joynson Hicks.

"Speaking frankly, yes." "A 6ham," was the description witness gave to the letter written in November, 1309, to tho agents at Iquitos ly Senor Alarco, tlio London manager,- instructing them to treat the natives with all kindness. Right up to September, 1910, the atrocities still went on."

In cross-examination by Mr. Asquith, Sir Roger said that the British directors would not be likely to hear of any atrocities from the Aranas. > .