GERMANS AND ARABS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11596, 14 January 1916, Page 1

GERMANS AND ARABS.

UNHOLY ALLIANCE. 'The effects of the "world-war in Central Africa are described an a letter from Mr, Dan,. : Crawford, of the Luanza Mission, who will be .remembered as haying visited and lectured in Christchurch. The, letter, which ,is dated August 20 last, reached civilisation, via the Belgian ' Congo. Mr ' Crawford writes: ■—

" The war has'brought lots of trouble I pn us, even far in the middle of, Africa. 1 It has stirred up a, lot of bad blood j here. Not long ago when I was coming f horfchy >'-' Belgian -'jand. a, German were j the actors iii ■ a. dark drama of death- | Bad news had reached, the Belgian, from home—mother killed, wife'killed, child killed—ves," killed'b3", the Germans in Europe. The pain, and, passion of t]io news hit the bereayed'man hard, for he .first lost heart, then' he lost his head, and thep ' £he, German lost his .'life,'- For what'<jlb you think? DrawI reyclypr, t)]ie. Belgian gave him three Browpine; bullet-; in the I->ody—-three tragic buret's, each ringing out to •accompany'names Of - the far-off dead, in- Belgium, . ■ who , were . thus so damnably: av&ng'ed., But law-can ne : ther extenuate' nor' exaggerate, so ,the halfmad.' wholly ' sad Belgian 'must stand his trial.',.- 1 1 -.: ' ' • : :

j '"-If, you cross this great-lake to the far-off."British side,: tlien through ! Itabwaknd till. you,strike'Lake Tangaj nika, there it- is the battle-line is I drawn. ... And .the blackest bit of all . infamy is found in the incredible fact that the Arabs have joined with the Germans—yes. the very Arabs who devastated our land' in the old slave-raid-ing daj*s. Ever .since that great victory for freedom and faith, when they were swept out of the interior, . they have had' the inflammation of a devouring ambition .to- regain'their old asC|ndancy;pyer their lost Central, Africa wopde'v tliey have rallied as one man round th 0 Germans,, making common came with them, as;! tlieir, Tuskish' brethren have done'in the Dardanelles. Because we' fought their slavery crusade day and night, va.hv and shine, they tried to'get us out of the country, but I liave outlived them -all and seen them • swept far East. And now my God has humbled me, for I have lived to see a Christian civilised power ally itself with the ancient enemies of the j Faith. In all my missionary career I have never lived under the British flag, but under Portuguese and Be'gian, so I am not biassed. But this German-Arab alliance i-s a desper thing than the mere incidental nhase of a shoulder-to-shoulder campaign. Dr Sclilunck, a great German missionary. leader, goes the whole hoc and boasts that the missionary activity after the war will be a new and healthy form of Christianity, which - will commend itself to the heathen and the Mohammedan especially! Healthy is h\s own word, and the proof of its health-giving virtue will be found in the alacrity with which these debased natives -will acclaim its ear-ticking, soul-destroying .virus."