RED RUBBER.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 180, 15 July 1912, Page 6

RED RUBBER.

CONGO ATROCITIES REPRODUCED. BY PERUVIAN COMPANIES. (Received 15, 12.0 p.m.) London, July 14. The Blue Book of Sir Roger Casement’s report specifically charges many Peruvian .-'.nd Amazon companies’ agents with committing wholesale and unpunished atrocities. It charges them with flogging British West Indians and Native Indians collecting rubber, including women and children, cutting off their ears, arms and legs, and leaving the victims to die, pouring kerosene over and incinerating men and women, and other unthinkable cruelties. Sir i Edward Grey’s demand to Pern_Xo • take drastic measures has been resultless of anything beyond promises, hence the publicity. The worst features of the regime of the late King Leopold in the Congo State are being reproduced in the I rubber-producing districts of Peru. : where Sir Roger Casement has been • conducting an investigation on be- • half of British interests. Sir Roger, ;[ who is British Consul-General at Rio de Janiero, has reported to Sir Edward Grey, according to a cablegram, “that the revelations are appalling,” and civilisation will be shamed if no steps are taken to secure immediate reforms. —Practically all the Peruvian rubber is gathered by unhappy natives who are driven by the most dreadful cruelties to make huge fortunes for a group of. utterly unscrupulous capitalists. Thousands of these people have been murdered in cold blood by their masters, and others, less fortunate, have been subjected to unspeakable tortures in order that their countrymen might work the harder. The death-rate among the poor slaves is enormous, and travellers state that sometimes the women and children are allowed to starve while the men are collecting at the muzzle of the rifle the substance that the markets of the world demand Some of the stories that are told regarding the rubber forests of Peru are simply "unprintable. The remedying of this state of affairs would not be a very difficult matter if the Great Powers would agree to act in concert. Peru would | be compelled to introduce the neces-1 sary reforms if the nations threaten- i ed to place an embargo on trade in | “red rubber.” But humanitarian ; m-| pulses have had little influence in * the moulding of international policy of late years, and when we remember that only the death of King Leopold cut short the Congo tragedy, though the facts cf the situation had been public property for half a generation, it is difficult to believe that the salvation of the Peruvian natives is going to come from foreign diplomacy.