Republican farmer., 1918-09-13
DISCLOSURES OF AWFUL CRuELTIES IN GERMAN AFRICA British Governments S Reply to German Secretary of
 State. MANY DETAILS
 NOT PRINTABLE Unbroken Record of Off cial Bad Faith, and
 Oppression.

| London, Sept 12.---A report con- taining evidences of the brutal meth ods employed by Germany in the ad- ministratiDn of her colonies in Africa, made public today by Edmond H. L. Gorges, acting secretary of the inte- rior, Union of South Africa, consti- tutes the British governments reply i to Dr. ". S. Solf, the German secre- tary of state for the colonies, that Germany would demand the return of her colonies at the peace conference. | The report is one of the most sen- sational ever issued in connection i with German colonial methods and it constitutes an indictment of German fitness to rule the black native of Af- rica. The evidences on which the re- port is based are taken from official German documents at Windhoek, from sworn statements by native chiefs and by Europeans familiar with the country and from the writ ings of Gov Luetwein,' who held of flee from 1894 to 1905; Dr. Paul Rohr- back, pr. Karl Dove and others. AL together the report refutes in detail i Dr.. Solfs recent claim that Ger Imany's pre-war humane treatment of the native races won for her the moral right to be great colonial power" In view of this claim the following statement by Acting Secre- tary Gorges is interesting:
 ''The native opinion here is unan- imously against any idea of their ever being handed back to the tender mer- cies of Germany. Any suggestion or the possibility of an act of this kind lon the part of Great Britain produces the utmost consternation."
 The report shows that the first 25 years of German rule in Southwest Africa was an unbroken record of of ffcial bad faith, private oppression, Icrueity, barbarities and rcbberies cul- minating in the Herero and Hottentot irebellions. During the first II years there was no law for the natives. Such protection as the law eventually provided indicated considerations of humanity but the order to exploit the natives as laborers remained.
 When the Germans first arrived says the report, they entered agree ments with the native chiefs, but these became scraps of paper and the natives were fraudulently deprived of their best land. Traders and settlers robbed them of their cattle, which was their only wealth, and the law subsequently prevented the natives from possessing large herds of stock The natives thus were driven to work at ridiculously inadequate wages and often never were paid They were treated like slaves and their women folk were maltreated habitually by the Germans. These were some ot the things which goaded the natives into rebellion, which was suppressed by ruthless cruelty resulting virtually in the extermination of the three tribes involved. The Hereros were re- duced from 80,000 to 15,100, the Hot tentots from 10000 to $500, and the Berg Damaras from 59,000 to 12,000
 Thus 80 per cent. of the Hereo people disappeared and more than half o1
 the Hottentots and Berg Damaras
 shared the same fate. How it was done was to supercede the 'lenienty Gov. Leutwein by the notorious Gov Trotha, fresh from Germany to East Africa, where he suppressed the Arat ; rebellion by a wholesale massacre Gov. Trotha issued an "eXterminatior order" the terms of which provided : that no Herero man, woman, child ol : babe was to receive mercy or quarter "Kill every one of them; take nc
 prisoners" he said in these orders.
 Evidence that the order was only
 too faithfully carried out is recorded in a story of Gov. Trotha's former groom, who described how he once
 was ordered to kill a young Hererc
 woman. He refused in disgust whereupon German soldier showed
 him how to do it and then held the dripping bayonet in his face. An of.
 f1cer and German soldiers were stand
 ing around but none interfered in be , half of the woman.
 Another reliable witness who va. with Gov. Trotha for two years, testi
 fled that he knew of no instance O
 prisoners being spared. Even aftel
 the rebellion surviving natives fareC I but little better.
 t One of the most significant docu V ments in the report Is secret circu
 lar by Gov. Heitz in 1912 and address