New Britain herald., 1917-07-07
BRITISH BRUTALITY IN AFRICA DENIED
Condition of Natives Due to Ger,
 man Negligence, Is Charge

London, June 30.-In reply to some
 remarkable stories of British mistreat-
 ment of natives in German West
 Africa which recently have been cir
 culated by the German wireless, an
 official statement of the situation in
 that district has been given to The Associated Press. It declares that
 whatever sufferings have been en-
 dured by the natives of Ovamboland
 were due. not to British mistreat-
 ment, but to the neglect of the Ger
 man government prior to British oC-
 cupation, and gives some details of
 the work of restoration and recon
 struction which the British undertook
 as soon as they came into possession.
 The most recent German wireless
 communique on this subject was is sued on May 30. and said in part:
 Terribly critical conditions have been created in German West Africa owing to the occupation of that coun- try by the English. A missionary writes to a South African mission pa per: In the Ovambo country the terrors of war were followed by even greater terrors of famine. Now and then the country has been visited be- fore by similar afflictions, but the German government took care to pre- vent suffering by helpful precautions so that the afflictions never reached extreme severity. After the English came, these precautions were neglect ed and hunger was able to raVage the unfortunate country without mercy. Thousands of natives have fallen vic- tims English neglect and misgoV ernment.' 's
 cfa c1o hv from the governor general of South Africa. illustrate the reckless false hood of the German official state ments. The British reply is as fol- lows:
 The territory of Ovamboland was included within the borders of the German Protectorate of Southwest but was always left severely alone by the German administra- tion The events referred to in the i wireless report occurred in 1915 and were directly due to the neglect of the German Protectorate to take pre- cautions against famine.
 Owing to a succession of droughts, l want began to make itself felt Ill ! in 1913, and the famine 1 in a total failure of the 1 crops in the, beginning of 1915
 "Immediately after the surrender l of the German forces at Tsurmeb in !, July, 1915, the starving Ovambos who l had been shut in Ovambo- l land bv the German troops operating ] directly between them and the Union forces, commenced to stream south 1 out of Ovamboland in search of sue cor which had been denied them by the Germans. Over 1000 Ovambos reached our posts in northern dis tricts and were immediately placed in hospitals and depots and every thing possible done to nurse them back to health and strength
 within two months of our occu- patton of the Protectorate, large fleet of motor lorries had been or ganized to convey food to Ovambo- land and to succor those who had been unable to come south and re- lief measures were in full operation. Our officers distributed large quanti ties of foodstuffs and relief parties were organized to assist struggling Ovambos on the road. These meas 4 ures were carried out in the face of enormous difficulties of transport and in addition to the heavy task of