The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-03-22
SLAVERY IN GERMAN COLONIES DEFENDED BY TIE GOVERNOR Immediate Abolition Would
 Mean Native Uprisings,
 Dr. Schnee Declares . FARM LABORERS ARE NOT TO BE HAD Exodus to City Forces Germans to Employ Foreigners-Bcrlin Peo- pie Not Good Churchgoers, According to Last Census

Berlin. March 21.-A brief, defending slavery fer the colonies, declaring that its immediate abolition would lend to native risings, is handed in by the gov ernor of German East Africa, Dr.. Schnee. In response to a resolution passed by the Reichstag last year, call- ing for the termination of household slavery by January 1, 1920, pr. Schnee has reported that there are about 1s5,- 900 slaves in the colony at present. many of them captives in wars as late as 1905 and 1906 while others are be- ing imported even today from Port ugese East Africa and British Cape Colony. But the number is steadily growing less.
 A law passed a few years ago liber- ates all children oi household slaves born after 1905; deaths are further re- ducing the number of slaves; many are able to buy their liberty from sums ranging from $2 to s15 and in addition many owners are voluntarily giving their slaves freedom.
 The governor predicts that slavery practically will have ceased to exist NAthObt ldi tucl iSStittlFo mcdSuItS py 1880 and pleads against setting any fixed date for general emancipation, which he declares would ruin many plantation owners. provoke rebellion among the native farmers and cost the government at least s2,oO0,oO0 to in- demnify owners for the loss of their property.
 In discussion of the report in the budget committee of the reichstag the socialists tude of the government behind which, they averred. was the self-interest of the plantation iwners, seeking a cheap sup ply of labor. Advertisements from CO., lonial newspapers, offering to sell or buy slaves, were read by the socialists. who declared that the government was favor
 ing and even promoting the slave trade, and clerical leader alleged that German planters organize regular man-hunts to secretary of state for the colonies, admit ted that the law has been interpreted to justify compulsory recruiting of native labor for plantations and that grave in
 Judgements of the law had been commit
 ted by native soldiers with the knowl- edge and consent of their white officers. The native population of Africa is at best steadily shrinking under contact with the white man. It has been thought that under the influence of white civilization, the cessation of the continual tribal wars and the introduction of scientific medical methods the negro population in Africa would grow rapidly. Diederich Wester- mann, professor at the Oriental seminary of the Berlin university, declares on the contrary that the depopulation is steady and rapid. He cites the report of Cath olic missionary, Father van der Burgt who after 22 years work in German East Africa found that the native population in that time had decreased a third if moi a half Infant death rates of from 47 tc so per cent and a surprisingly low birth
 rate are factors which missionaries ob- served in Togo, the Cameroons and other African colonies asewell as German Easi Africa.