A correspondent of the Times, writing from Zanzibar, makes a
statement about German action off the East African Coast which we quote textually. " The German war-ships," he says, " have been steaming two miles from the mainland coast at night, and occasionally throwing shells promiscuously on to the land, with no idea of attacking an enemy, but simply to over- awe the natives." That would be murder in sport, or possibly to test the range of shells, and is to us absolutely incredible. Events on the coast, however, reveal a feeling on the part of Germans towards the black races which was entirely un- suspected, and which bears a strange resemblance to the feeling of Dutch Boers. Neither quite acknowledge the natives to be human beings, and when resisted or insulted, grow actively cruel. Even then we hardly understand the passionate African hatred—the Arabs, for instance, being at least as cruel as the Germans—but it is expressed also by the Zulus towards Dutchmen. But for us, Cetewayo would have killed out the Boers of the Transvaal. We are not at all sure that the true cause of the difference made in English favour is not our known antipathy to slavery, and the consequent certainty of the people that even if we conquer them, we shall not interfere with their daily lives.
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