Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-25

reaucratic government by narrow min led
and incompetent German state officials.
Having laid the foundation of a model
state from the German bureaucratic point
of view the German government then
proceeded to invite German subjects to
go and inhabit the new colony. The fig
ures quoted above show that very few
Germans felt inclined to place them
selves under bureaucratic rule in the
German colonies. A German contrives to
bear the burden of militarism, police tyr
amy and bureaucratic administration at
home. but he always desires to turn his
back on these abuses when he quits the
fatherland
Thousands upon thousands of Germans
emigrate to England and America and
other free countries in order to evado
compulsory military service and to enjoy
the political liberty which they cannot
find at home Political liberty and free
dom of action is more necessary in a vir-
gin country than anywhere else. because
enterprise is killed by any other condi-
lions The grandmotherly system Of bu-
reaucratic supervision introduced in the
German colonies has killed all private
enterprise and made 1t impossible for
healthy commercial development to take
place.
In some of the German possessions in
the Pacific ocean there are actually more
government officials than ordinary white
inhabitants. In other possessions there is
a government official to every two white
inhabitants There are very many more
government officials in the German colo
MES than in the English colonies. which
comprise one-sixth of the globe and con-
tain many millions of white Inhabitants.
The German farmer who desires to till
the virgin soil, say in German Southwest
Africa. must first obtain official license
to follow the agricultural occupation, then
another license to permit him to keep
horses, third to permit him to keep cat
Ia finu 70 Ean
house. fifth permitting him to Keep dogs
and poultry. sixth license allowing him
to marry wife. a seventh allowing him
to employ the natives as agricultural labor
ers, an eighth license permitting him to
purchase agricultural implements and so
forth. Such hindrances as these have
driven many energetic colonists back to the
fatherland before they have had fair
chance of trying their luck in the new coun-
try. Those who overcome the preliminary
difficulties created by this senseless sys-
tenn of bureaucratic control find their lives
and careers disturbed at every point by a
continuous system of interference and SUI
pervis.on.
If this bureaucratic control had always
been efficient and honest it would still have
been disastrous. but it has been doubly
disastrous because In many cases the worst
features OF misgovernment have been no
ticeable. All the reliable evidence avail
able points to the certain conclusion that
the rebellion in German Southwest Africa,
which has now been proceeding for the
last three years and has cost many thou
sands of lives besides devastating the en-
tire colony. was due entirely to the tyran-
nical misgovernment Of the German au-
thorities. Similarly in German East Africa
the natives have been goaded into rebellion
by the intolerable tyranny of their native
governors The German newspapers publish
day after day details of innumerable colo
NAL scandals to such an extent, indeed, that
newspaper readers in Germany have ceased
to pay any attention to these never-ending
disclosures.
The clerical member Of the reichstag.
Herr Erzberger. who has taken the most
prominent part In dragging the scandalous
conditions in the administration of the
German colonies into public notice, an
nounces that the truth about the worst
scandal of all still remains unpublished.
He declares that he is prepared to make
new revelations and that the next colonial
scandal would surpass all the recent abuses
discovered and exposed by the press Herr
Erzberger's forthcoming revelations are
awaited with keen interest.