RUBBER ATROCITIES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 48, 21 October 1912, Page 6

RUBBER ATROCITIES.

A STRONG INDICTMENT.

The revelation that have just been made regarding the atrocities perpetrated upon the native workers employed in the South American rubber trade were contained in a report prepared by Sir linger Casement, British Consul-General in Brazil, who, acting under instruction® from the Foreign Office, recently went to Peru to inves-

iigato what was known to have become an intolerable state of affairs in connection with the cultivation of rubber. Now that thp story has been given to the world, it is seen to be even more hideous than that related of similar doings on the Congo. Sir

Roger Casement told how adults wore flogged for the mistakes of others, and mothers for those of their children, who in some cases were compelled to stand hy while their mothers wore burned to death. Others, after having their arms twisted behind their backs and tied at the wrists, were suspended well above the ground, and .then scourged on tbo limbs and the loner part of their backs. The Commissioner declares that it is no uncommon practice for natives to bo saturated with kerosene and then burned at the stake. Xo loss revolting arc the details of how children are treated. Some are declared to have had their brains clashed out,

while, others, after having had both arms and logs hacked off, have boon left to die a. slow death. lA favourite practice with the authors of these atrocious acts is to cut off the cars of living people. The slave gangs were often starved, and many of the wretched creatures died on long marches while struggling along under heavier burdens than they could possibly carry. Those in charge of these gangs are said to have taken to the life “merely for amusement.” One man killed no fewer than 27 natives in one day, shooting some, cutting off

the heads' of Others, and hanging the rest. Another chain-gang official bound a boy with cords, poured kerosene over Ids hair, and threw him into a fire. No regard is shown for either ago or sex, women, both old and young, being killed just as frequently as men. A mother with a baby, who was caught by an expedition sent out after runaways, had her head cut off. Often the fugitives, upon being captured, are tied to a tree and shot. An Indian chief was burned alive in the

presence of his wife and children. The wife was then beheaded, while the children were dismembered and cast into a fire. One day no fewer than 200 natives were lashed, a flogging being the common penalty meted out to a culprit. Sir Roger Casement adds that offences against morality are perpetuated under circumstances of fiendish ingenuity.