The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-12

la king and parliament, governing them-
 selves. Just across the lake, in German East Africa. the natives were ruled oy
 the same methods the Huns have used in 1 Belgium and in their prison camps in l Germany. During my trip around the
 lake l stopped at the big native town of
 Mwanza, the chief port of the Germans. | Here soldiers with whips in their hands
 met me at the wharves and I was told
 that any white man had the right to give any negro who insuled him 15 lashes. The policemen and all other officers carried
 whips of hippopotamus hide called kabu-
 kos. These are terrible weapons. Each ! is strip of the thick skin of the hippo
 potamus trimmed down to the diameter
 of ones finger and made tapering at the
 end. It is heavy and flexible, and will
 cut like a knife light blow draws blood and I was told that the expert 1 flosger knows how to bring it down on the bare skin with a twist that cuts the | flesh into shreds. 1 saw natives get down
 on their knees and beg for mercy when
 the soldiers even shook their whips at 1 them.
 | The German officials at Mwanza told
 me that it had been impossible to keep the natives in subjugation except by the whip. This was the opinion of Dr. Carl | Peters. the man who did so much to
 make treaties with the African kings and
 bring German East Africa into the hands l of the Germans. Dr. Peters was dis | missed from his position as ruler of the region about Mount Kilimanjaro on ac- count of his brutality. and the publication
 of the fact brought up a libel suit in | Germany One of the Munich papers had called Peters hangman, murderer and a coward, publishing how he had flogged | three female servants and hung others.
 In one case native had stolen a chicken. r1A had given him an emetc to make him throw up the chicken, and then had him | flogged almost to death In this trial | several German officials from East Africa
 said that flosging was absolutely neces-
 sary to colonial rule. and one of the
 former governors regretted the mildness
 of the German officials.
 In this connection I have just re-
 ceived an open letter addressed to Gen.
 eral Shuts from Dr. Frank Weston the bishop of Zanzibar, and head of the uni
 versailles mission in German East Africa. 1 The subject is, "The Black Slaves of l Prussia" Bishop Weston. who has been 1 10 years in German East Africa describes
 the cruelties of the Germans as beyond description. and gives many instances,
 to same of which he was an eyewitness. Says he: The German sjambok, or whip 1 IS Of rhinoceros or hippopotamus hide It IS employed not merely to hurt, but to damage the victim. and the soldiers who Lay 1t on are past masters in the art The German official, or employer, pre-
 sides at the ceremony to see that no | mercy Is given. The condemned man is i not tied up. He lies on the earth his | face either in the dust or on a hard floor. After the first two three stroke ne has to be seized and forced to keep still If he wriggles and screams he is liable to receive the same number of strokes again and again. Also when the law orders 90 lashes in two nstallments
 the man gets 50 at one time
 Tn another place the bishop tells
 how the natives are tortured. He tells how one of his black friends was | taken into the woods with a native policeman and a German official and | beaten day by day for a week until
 his body was mass of wounds. An 1 other native Christian was put in the
 iron hat. a band of iron being passed | around his head and frightened by vise-like screw so as to press especial 1 ly on the temples. The agony thus
 caused is unspeakable. Another meth cd of torture is to tie a string to the
 middle finger and pass it back under and round the forearm and tighten till
 the man confesses. The punishment
 of the chain gang also is terribly Icruel. Eight men or women are
 chained by the neck to one heavy chain and not unclaimed until the sen-
 tence is finished As such. they must ] work and move as one while their jailers flog them with rhinoceros whips or kick them with their heavy
 hobnailed boots or jab them with the butt ends of their rifles. British sol- diers have experienced similar cruel- ties in some of the German prison camps during the war.
 Bishop Weston tells how the natives are enslaved and how their women are outraged. While on a tour the officials require that each man be sup