The Llano colonist. [volume] (Llano, Calif.) 191?-1937, 1922-09-30
COLONY RULE OF BRITISH
EMPIRE HARSH, DESPOTIC
Imperial England Levies Oppressive
Taxes ON POverty-sTicken
PeOnIes

SSEAS@
London. - When the British govern
ment wanted the German colonies there
was lot of hypocritical talk about the
cruelty Of Germans to natives and the
German unfitness for colonial admins
tration.
The other day British labor mem-
Der Of parliament painted a picture of
the British crown colonies that made
ones ears Jingle.
Josiah Wedgewood, speaking for
the Labor party, took up the colonial
secretary's plant about last year hav-
ing been very hard for the colonial of
ficials and for the shareholders in coli
onial enterprises. 1t had been even
worse year for the natives, Wedge
wood said.
The coming of the white man has
forced the natives under the evil eff
fects of capitalism. The slump in bus
mess after the war has hit the natives
in the British colonies worse than the
WOIk6IS III Europe.
The natives have discovered that
now they are mere cogs in a gigantic
trading machine. Wedgewood said. And
"a large part of the responsibility for the
suffering of the natives in the British
colonies is due to the blighting hand
of the government.
The British colonial policies toward
the natives have not only intensified
the results of the business crisis, but
have even added burden Of CALLING
taxation on top of all the other trou-
bles of the natives.
Wedgewood cited the Kenya colony
in Africa as an-instance. Three years
ago the colonial government imposed
an income tax of shilling per 81 ster-
ling on the European settlers and In
dian immigrants. The native Africans
were too poor to pay any income tax.
The Europeans refused to pay the tax.
the colonial government did not enforce
it, and it has remained unpaid until
the colonial government ennded the
the colonial government ended the
Then a new law was made, shifting
the tax to the shoulders of the Indians
and natives. The taxes on rice and le-
guminous crops were increased from
IS to Is and 30 percent.
The Europeans administer the col
ony for their own interest and force
the natives and Indians to support the
colonial government.
The political policy of the colonial
office is as disastrous as its economic
measures. The colonial office oppos-
led the division of natives in the West
Indian colonies into separate voting
communities, but in India and Africa
this policy is enforced.
In Ceylon even the Indian moder-
ates had become non-co-operators,
Wedgewood said, because the colonial
government had delayed the indispen-.
sable reforms too long.
In the Kenya colony the government
now imposes such heavy taxes on In
dian immigrants that immigration from
India threatens to stop altogether.
The Chartered Co. of South Africa IS
making bargain with General SHUTS
in which 100000 Negroes of Rho
desla are pawns in gamble about the
price of having Rhodesia incorporated
IN the union Of South Africa.
This transaction is defended by the
gamblers with the explanation that this
question is to be settled by referen-
dunn of the people of Rhodesia but on
ly SO Negroes out of 100000 have
a vote.
This whole country will be handed
over like a chattle to General SHUTS
and his parliament, altho these politi-
clans have very bad reputation for
Their Encouragement of natives.
Reports from former German coll
onles now under allied mandates also
show that the natives there are worse
Oft than they were under German rule
and that there is less sanitation, educa-
ton and administrative efficiency than
there was when the Germans ruled,