THE HUN AS A COLONIST

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 262, 24 July 1918, Page 5

THE HUN AS A COLONIST

HIS METHODS IN THE CAMEROON'S. A significant illustration of the spirit and methods of German colonisation is to bo found in the fncts Riven by Fleet Paymaster Cyril Cox, R.N.R., who writes in the May "Nineteenth Cenlrory and After" of what ho taw .ind learnt in the Caiwnxms. The eoeort plantations there, worked by native labour under Gorman overseer's, presented all the appearance of highly . efficient industrial organisations. Large spaces of junglo had been reclaimed, and werq being scientifically cultivated. Around tho cocoa fields acres of plantains were laid oul to provide the workers with their principal food, commodious huh had been erected for their accommodation, and even wellequipped hospitals for their euro when sick. All the arrangements wers thorough. j and systematic Vet the colony yielded J practically no return upon tho laa'ge sums invested in its development. Tho natives, too, hated the German rule, and were delighted nt its overthrow. A. fundamental fault marred the wholo of this German enterprise, and made it, for all the scientific efficiency displayed, a crirnn against civilisation. Tho housing of tlio natives was purely a business undertaking for tho provision of cheap labour. The whole idea, was to exploit the country and its inhabitants for the benefit of' the white trader. Tno natives were not regarded as human beings, but as stock-in-trade. They were slaves in all "bujfc name, and would havo been technically slaves also but for tho device, of paying them a nominal wage of a few shillings n month. Forced on to the cocoa "fields, they were not allowed to wok other occupation. Their German overseers had virtually unlimited powers in dealing with them, and could, if-they chose, exercise theso powers with unbridled brutality.. . . Throughout the colony the. administration of justice was based upon the principle of the divine right of the white man. Any German, whether he was u. trader, a missionary, a. planter, or anyone else, could take any native to the police station and have him flogged. It tho white man said that tho native deserved the punishment his worn was enough; no other evidence; was required. As the writer-observes:— "This condemnation oftheacoused native on the unsupported testimony or tho European offers a striking contrast to the British ideafi of justice. In the neighbouring British Gold .Coast colony the natives were not deprived ot tneir land as they were in the Camoroons. Great pains were taken to preserve the native email holder and encourage him in the development of his land. Ho was financed, taught- improved methods ot. cultivation, and helped to market his produce. Ho was. in faot, treated as a human being, with rights as a producer, with whom the British could trade profitably The nativo was contented, ami worked well because he had a .personal interest in the success of hie plantation. Henco the GoM Coast was an .economic success, while tho Camcroiras were an economic failure. It ie worthy of note that for hundreds of mite up hnddoro tho West African coast tho English language, or rather a sort of pidgin English, is the lingua franca of the natives, and the Cameroons natives speak better English than any other of the coastal tribes Tho Germans were obliged to lwirn nidsin English in their own. colo C ny r bXre'they g could drill .their nativn troops, or give orders to their house serVa At S 'tho outbreak of war they found themsolves in on awkward predicament, "because of the deep-rooted hostility, of their coloured subjects. One of their first acts was to hang "king" Rudolph Bell, hereditary chief of the Dualatribe, who was then in prison. He had previously dared to protest to the German Governor against the transportation of his tribe from lands wanted by .the.Government at Duala to an inland district, where they, n fishing folk, could not fend for themselves. The Governor told "King Bell , that the natives in a colony belonging to the All Highest German Emperor must go and live where they were told, and b<3 thankful timtthcy w«re allowed to live nt all. "King Bell retorted: "lour Emperor plentee much beeg man, but Rudolph Bell he know plentee much bigger man, and he write letter to English Emperor, and ask nun. to come to Duala in plentee beeg sheep, and take tho Catneroons away from you. Then wo havo nice English Governorsno moro German. Governor." For this awful piece of lece niajeste Bell was clapped in gaol, and, on the British declaration of war, promptly executed for treason. The natives on the coast are firmly convinced that the German treatment of Bell was the cause of tho war, and that tho English came to avengo his death. While hostilities went on in tuo Cameroone, the Germans in their panto fear of tho natives, resorted to horrible terrorism. As toon as H.M.S. Cumberland arrived, caioes loaded with natives came off to her. "Of the tales they told," says Staff-Paymaster Cos, and of the marks on their bodies winch bore testimony to -the truth of their statements, I prefer not to speak. Suffice it to say that the ship's doctors were kept busy patching up these wretched victims of German kultur, and let us disaouse our minds of the notion that the medicval practice of inflicting torture upon human beings hos been stamped out by tho march of civilisation. For these natives had been tortured until the merefiieht of them was enough to turn ono sick A Parliamentary committee was afterwards appointed to investigate tho matter, and its report, together with some photographs which no one can look at without shuddering, is .available, to all who caro to read it. In itself it affords a sufficient answer to Germany s. demand for the restoration of her colonies en bloc, and a sufficient motive to continue tho struggle until that demand is withdrawn." (