The Administrator of South-West Africa has prepared a Report on
the treatment of the natives under German rule, which was published on Thursday as a Blue Book. It is a terrible document, based on German official and unofficial evidence as well as on the statements of surviving natives. We hope to deal with it on another occasion. But we may say at once that, whatever views may be current in Downing Street as to the future of the ex-German colonies, the British public, when it has read this Report, will be more determined than ever that Germany shall not be allowed another opportunity of misruling native races. Our own record is not spotless, but we can honestly say that our past errors were nearly always to be traced to individual settlers who were not under proper control. The damning, fact about the horrors in South-West Africa, like the massacre of the Hereros, is that they were deliberate crimes committed " by order " of the German Administration.
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