IN EAST AFRICA.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16036, 22 January 1918, Page 3

IN EAST AFRICA.

CAMPAIGN EVENTS. THE PROBLEM OP THE NEGRO. Some interesting observations on different aspects of the East African campaign and tho problems it has raised were made to a Dominion representative a day or two ago by Mr. D. E. Hutchins, the well-known forestry expert. Mr. Hutchins spent five years in British-East Africa, demarcating the forests, and lias seen a good deal of the German territory in the south. He lias two nephews serving yith the British East African forces. One of them transferred some time ago to the political branch, and is now in charge of a former German station, and the other,' when he last wrote, held acting rank as a company commander in the King’s African Rifles. The last-men-tioned officer gives a brief description of the final stand made by the Germans at Naragombie. It was here that the last 'important battle of the campaign was fought, sncl it was very stubbornly contested. Naragombie lies between 70 and 80 miles south of the Rufiji and about half that distance southwest of the coast station at Kilwa. The British column which fought at Naragombie had been moving south, fighting and driving the enemy before it, for about a Aionth. At Naragombie, however, the enemy was found established' on a hill, and this position he defended 1 with great obstinacy in a battle which lasted from early morning until after dark. The British attacking column consistcdjnainly of black troops led by whito officers. Heavy fighting lasted all day, and considerable losses were suffered on both sides. The outcome was for a time in doubt, as the Germans succeeded at some points in driving in tho British line. In the end, however, a battalion of the King’s African Rifles—the sepoys of "Africa—saved the situation by charging home on tho enemy’s main position on the hill. The Germans and their askaris fell hack ton miles during the night, and afterwards there were only minor checks to the great southward drive which culminated in the last remnants of - the enemy’s forces being driven across tho Rovuma into Portuguese territory. Tho area they have entered is oven more unhealthy than that they have just left. The country continues to fall towards the south, and it is in tho lower levels that fever is most prevalent. This factor is likely to tell more seriously against the remaining German forces, cut off as they are from all bases of supply, than against tho better provided pursuing columns.

AN IMPOSSIBLE PROPOSAL. Speaking of the proposal lately mooted that the negroes of the German colonies should be asked to determine their own political destinies by some sort of voting procedure, Mr. Hutchins observed! that it would not be taken seriously by anyone familiar with the territories in question and their inhabitants. The Swahili, a mixed negro and Arab race, who inhabit the coastal zone of Gorman East Africa, as well as a considerable extent of the African seaboard on north and south, may be described as semi-civilised, and _ are, perhaps, qualified to vote on simple political issues. But the Swahili constitute a small part of the population of German East Africa. The negro tribes of the interior, whether they are cultivators like the Kikuyu and Kavinodo of British East Africa, or herdsmen like the Masai, are primitive savages, hardly possessing the rudiments of political organisation. It is only about thirty years since the Germans took over the administration of the territory from the Arabs, and the influence of the latter had penetrated very little beyond the coastal zone. It is certainly' impossible, Mr. Hutchins stated, td olitain a coherent expression of opinion from the negroes of East Africa on such questions affecting their future as will have to be settled at the end of the war. He added that public opinion in South Africa is decidedly averse to any other solution of tile problem than that the conquered territories should bo brought under British rule. So far as Damaraland (South-West Africa) is concerned, he considers that South African desires are hardly likely to be resisted. The people of the Union are determined that Germany shall not resume possession of a strategical base on their borders, and the Union Government has already' given out farms, and in other ways indicated that the present occupation is-intended to bo permanent. Damaraland, Mr. Hutchins went on to remark. Was an arid territory of limited possibilities, offering few attractions except to people like the dry-veldt Boers, and Germany might make no very strong bid for its recovery. She would certainly feel no such indifference to East Africa. A great part of this territory offers immense scope for profitable development, and in some parts the development of tropical plantations and other productive enterprises has already been carried to an advanced stage. For instance, on the occasion of his visit some years ago, Mr. Hutchins found the Germans working a forest on. the Usambara highlands by means of a wire tramway carried from the coast into the high country to an elevation of nearly 6000 feet. In other place he saw splendid botanical gardens, modelled upon the tropical gardens at Buitenzorg. in Java, tho finest of thoir kind in the world, There is no doubt, he considers, that the Gormans will do their utmost at tho Peace Conference to recover the colony upon which they have concentrated the bulk of their 'resources available for colonial development.