The debate in the Reichstag has developed into a violent
attack upon German colonial methods and an equally violent defence. Mutterings of the storm were beard on Friday week, when the Clerical Deputy, Herr Erzberger, in a long speech commented upon the recent disclosures. The firm of Tippelskirch, the shipping house of Woermann, and other smaller fry had been coining money out of Germany's colonial difficulties. The freights for the two days' voyage from the Cape to Luderitz Bay bad been 37.50 marks a ton, while from Hamburg to Vladivostok, a voyage of sixty days, the charge was only 23.50. He also criticised the concessions of land in South-West Africa, and the excessive expenditure caused by the system of Supplemen- tary Estimates. Herr Dernburg, who must be beginning to sigh for the peace of private life, replied as effectively as could be expected from one who had been in office only two months. But the real trouble began on Saturday, when Herr Bebel in a speech of three hours repeated the old charges and made many new ones. He accused the Governor of the Ca.meroons and certain officers there of barbarism and corrupt conduct, which the Government was trying to shield. If Herr Bebel's charges be true, the Congo State has no worse record. Then he turned to the case of Dr. Peters, who, in spite of having been found guilty and dismissed the service ten years ago, was now being rehabilitated by the authorities. He alleged that Herr Hellwig, who had prosecuted Dr. Peters, had been compelled to resign by his superiors.
