GERMAN INFAMIES IN EAST AFRICA

Evening Star, Issue 16350, 16 February 1917, Page 4

GERMAN INFAMIES IN EAST AFRICA

FOUL TREATMENT OF PRISONERS. A CALCULATED POLICY. With the arrival iu this country of the nrst. Englishmen am] Englishwoman who Eavo been prisoners of the Gormans in East Africa, since the outbreak of war. and who were released when the Balkans eaptui-ed labora,'a, picture in proper perspective is available of the foul treatment meted out to them by the Germans. The record or the degradation to which English rnJt l ' l an<i , mili V' lr ' V P riso »«« hubi neb l m Ol the ,101Tibk> of Ln fe ish ladies is cVS revolting as anv in on ’ tory of Gc ™ !nn K»Hnr. Tire specific pm peso was to discredit British prestige efmi /I’ a ” f V'° !mkc fhe anpear h«fme the natives as slaves of Germany, ho strongly us tn.s f«lt that a formal petion, accompanied by .sworn statements has been sent to General Smuts to bold a ° f V q ' ,ir - v into a course of conduct many details of which are too loathsome to I> S made public, but. Tie knowledge of which will at once show the impossibility <d the Germans over being fdlmml to return to their colonv. Among those who returned hmno a few SnlT F - **"'**''< l'™l- - or St. Andrews College, Zanzibar, uiio was on a tom- of school inspection in the German colony on the outbreak of " :lr ; In conversation with Reuter's representative Mr Spanton said : f “ f l *®. P°j!* is »>«»•* the Ormans non, the first dm their best 10 . destroy British prestige. They were brutal and cruet in the prosecution of a deliberate pohey to this end. They made both, civilian and military prisoners do the lowest Kind oi work, m order that they might lose, caste before the Africans, p'or great distances throughout Africa the news was passed that wc were German .slaves. This "a»s drummed into the people on everv opportunity and by all kinds of propa'ganda, ami even the native German soldiers referred to us as Gave*. , “ Ri'itish in the scantiest of Ciothmg, were set to pull a lorry through toe slieets — work usually done by oxen m mil view of the jeering natives. And one could see ar English university graduate hoeing up a native garden patch or a 1 wealthy rubber planter ( leaving out native latrines. All this has had a, great, effect on the native mind, and the new; of the degradation of British, and other European men and women, dashed as it has been across Africa, is a source of wonder to tribes hundreds of miles distant. —Selected for Brutality.— “Idle commandant at Tnbora 'was a man who had been warned by the German Government on account of Ids brutality, of winch he had been officially convicted. He uas once publicly horsewhipped bv a G-'rinan servant, yet he was appointed officer in clro-ge of the prisoners' camp at Talmra. Ihe same t>la.n was followed in tics case of the 1 Hoick ea.nip at. Kibonani. The man placed in charge here Hove such a character that the local chiefs sent their wives ami daughters out of the country. His own wife had committed suicide as a result ot Ids vile conduct, and lie was deliberately chosen to take charge of ladies of gentle birth and education. “At Taborn 86 of us—men of all nationalities and stations in life—were herded in a corrugated --hod, which wae so crowded that the hods touched one another, tend tat ion there was none, and as we werelocked up at- 7 at night until 6 (he next morning, the condition.'; were awful. The Germans made native soldiers with loaded rifles inarch up and down inside the “lied al! night. U ;s quite, clear that from a military point, of view the sentries were useless-—it wa.s only meant as another degradation lor uk, for one could not, imagine a greater outrage than to place a native guard in a white man’s bedroom. The. ladies were required to do thoir own housework and also six hours’ work for the Government every day. They protested. against being set to tasks ” which would ass:st the enemy, and were threatened with confinement with bread ■and w;dor.

“ While being conveyed from one camp to another, 30, English ladies, 9 Englishmen, find about 40 native prisoners were shut up in an iron railway shied (again without the slightest pretence of sanitation! lor one whole night, and most of tho next day. The natives were not allowed to go out under any pretext, while for many hours the English men and women were refused facilities for tho ordinary decencies of life.

'" On another occasion a caravan of men me! women were sent on a long march of 10 days under escort. It was pointed out that, in tho interests of <1 cce-ucy, tents mii.-t be provided for the ladies. Adtlmugh these were obtainable, tho. officer applied to refused permission, and replied; ‘What have -- Etnglifh women to do y it hj decency V —A Contrast.—

“As soon as tho Germans began to see that their colony was going, grievances wore redressed. When the advancing Belgians were 50 miles from Tabors. the German attitude bad completely dvuimd. Tho Brig tans behaved splendidly to ibo Germans on entering Tabora—a .great contrast to the manner in winch the latter had behaved to ns.

One Belgian officer said to mo : ‘I

have seer my father, mother, a ltd b rot tiers nu-ss.iicred. in Flanders, and my si,nor outraged.' Ono can imagine the difficulty in winch such a man would ho placed under the circumstances in repressing his natural feelings..