THE GERMAN COLONIES
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Your correspondent, R. G. Wahusley, concludes his letter " in the pre-War years German colonial .policy was characterized by both efficiency and enlightenment." He cannot have read " The Black Slaves of Prussia " an open letter addressed to General Smuts by Frank Weston, D.D., Bishop of Zanzibar, dated November 7th, 1917.
The Bishop gives his personal experiences of " How Germans Treat Africans." He says they " Rule entirely by fear," employing most cruel flogging and torture. The sjambok rules the plantation. Slavery was " a recognized condition- under the German flag." The Bishop concludes his letter with an impassioned appeal that the Germans should not be allowed to return to their colonies.
In the Life and Letters of Walter Page, Vol. II., p. 246, we read : " The natives—the Africans especially—have been so barbarously treated and so immorally, that it would be inhuman to permit the Germans to rule and degrade them further."—I am, Sir, &c., I. ROBERSON DAY, M.D. (Lond.).
Previous page
