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till in 1914 Herr Dittmann could say truly that, 'a simply overwhelming wealth of proof of the correctness of the assertions of his party had come from that side.'

was none.

This forced labour existed in all the African colonies, though the Secretary of State, Dr Solf, told the members of the Reichstag in Committee that theoretically there In East Africa it was veiled under a system of labour tickets, which meant that every black man had to work twenty days a month for the white men, or be taken to the police-station and sjamboked. Deputy Erzberger's comment on this, on March 7, 1914, was that the official report of the Protectorates for 1913-14 bore almost on every page 'a piercing, heart-rending cry concerning the treatment by white men of the black workmen on the plantations.' He added that, if a certain number of plantations in East Africa and the Cameroons could 'only be made to pay by manuring them with the blood of the natives, that would only bring a curse on the colonies and the Fatherland.'

In the Cameroons, especially, conditions were becoming intolerable, and were fearlessly exposed by the Bremen merchant Herr Vietor to the Reichstag Commission. It is not possible here to quote from Vietor's many reports and statements, but it is sufficient to state that they are amply supported by correspondence in our possession and by the statements of many independent witnesses. The testimony we have gathered shows that on many plantations the death-rate was abnormally high, that certain districts were becoming depopulated, that flogging was rampant, and that the labourers were driven in gangs to the plantations like so many cattle, or forcibly impressed into prolonged tasks of road-making and railway-building.

The hut tax was instituted to force the natives to work to earn it, but the earnings were totally inadequate. Here, too, the abuses were not limited to men. We learn of 'pregnant women and school-children' being compelled to help in the arduous task of road-making. Space forbids dealing at length with the subject; it can only be said that a veritable Niagara of evidence has poured in upon us as to the moral, physical and economic débâcle caused by a system so revolting that it takes us back in thought to the darkest pages in the world's

history. Not the least ugly feature connected with it is that, where the whip was not included, the brandy bottle was brought into play. Taught to drink schnaps,' the natives pledged their farms and sold their freedom for it. That fearless missionary Herr J. Scholze, lecturing at Carlsruhe in October 1904, said:

"The missionaries speak very straightly to the natives, but their critics think one can only lead the negro to work with the whip and alcohol. They use both means of education freely, especially the brandy, which causes the complete degradation of the natives. . . . the more schnaps, the more slaves' ('Die Wahrheit über die Heidenmission' U.S.W.).

Neither officers nor civil officials were above using brandy to enlist labourers. Some natives and tribes recognised the danger that threatened to overwhelm them, but unfortunately in most cases they put up a feeble resistance. It was the curse of drink which caused Samuel Maherero, the supreme chief of the Hereros, to let himself become a tool for so many years in German hands, and caused him to part recklessly with farm after farm of tribal land. But it was not till the year 1883 that the Hereros took to heavy drinking. So late as 1874, they had smashed a trader's brandy kegs to save themselves from what they termed 'poisonous devil water.' A few years later they had learnt their lesson from the white man only too well, so that von François wrote of them: arms, munitions, and brandy form the chief articles of commerce.'

German writers would have us believe that the Herero rising in 1904 was due to the mistrust aroused by the official stamping of guns, which made the natives fear that their weapons were about to be taken away from them. The same writers put down the awful impoverishment of the tribes to the ravages amongst their cattle caused by the Rinderpest. That is not so. The causes of the Herero rising were the desire to throw off the intolerable yoke of Germany, the spoliation of their lands for concession companies and plantations, the heavy and unjust sentences passed upon them for trivial offences, the inequality between black men and white men before the law, and above all the seizure of their cattle, on which they looked almost with veneration,

because the animals were sacred to the cult of their ancestors, whose wrath they feared to bring down upon themselves if profane hands touched their herds. It is true that the rising began by their murdering 123 Europeans; but, as Irle shrewdly asked, how many blacks had white men murdered previously, and how great and how long had been the provocation which led to these massacres? Not the least important factor in the Hereros' discontent was the reprehensible credit system of German traders, who cunningly forced on them useless articles at fabulous prices and plied them with the schnaps that proved their ruin. When, according to the outrageous accounts handed in by the traders, they had mortgaged all they possessed, the Government stepped in and stripped them of it by a judicial decision. When at length the worm turned, the retribution dealt out to the Hereros made their country one vast graveyard. Thousands, driven into barren waterless regions, perished of hunger and thirst. The rest, when they did not escape into British territory, were made prisoners, and were either forced to labour or were kept together in prison camps, where the death-rate was appalling. It is reckoned that only some 20,000 Hereros remained out of 80,000 after the atrocities of the Herero War.*

EVANS LEWIN.

M. MONTGOMERY-CAMPBELL.

Nothing has been said in this article about the numerous risings of natives in the German colonies. It should, however, be noted here that Prof. Schillings, the eminent German naturalist, at one time an official in the Colonial Department, stated that within a few years 200,000 people had been shot down in the German colonies, while Dernburg himself admitted that 75,000 natives had perished in the rebellion in East Africa-a war as bloody and ruthless as the Herero war, but less well known.

Art. 6.-THE EVOLUTION OF REVOLUTION.

THE word revolution is loosely used, in ordinary language, to cover many forms of political and social transformation. In the definite historic sense, revolution means a complete change of the economic, social and class relations in any country, which, whether brought about peaceably or forcibly, ends in the general legalisation of the new system. Mere political revolts are not social revolutions. They may represent a serious attempt at social and economic change from below, or they may be only the displacement of a governing family, or clique, above. To-day, we speak of the revolts in China and Russia as revolutions. Nevertheless, the social and economic modifications in those great countries, below the surface, have, so far, been very small. In neither case has there yet been a reconstruction of society; and, in fact, the true revolution in both countries has only just begun.

The removal of the foreign dynasty of the Manchus, imposed by the last of the Tartar invasions, and the establishment of a purely Chinese Federative Republic, have not led, so far, to any crucial alteration in the general administration, in the methods of production, or in the relations of classes. An obnoxious foreign rule, with its superficial incidents, such as the pigtail, has been got rid of; and the Chinese, as formerly under the native Ming dynasty, are again their own masters. But Chinese institutions of all kinds remain much as they have existed for many centuries, with a vast agricultural peasant proprietary as the basis of society, and family rule and ancestor worship binding the fabric closely together. The ancient arrangements have only been modified by the partial introduction of railways, tramways, steamers, the great factory industry, telegraphs, telephones and other improvements from the West. Some day these will undoubtedly cause a real social revolution throughout the Flowery Land, in spite of the natural conservatism of the masses of the people. The abolition of the pigtail and the recovery by women's feet of their natural shape are merely returns to sensible old customs; but, when the graves of the dead are freely

allowed to be desecrated by the passage of steel rails and locomotive haulage, it is clear that the established conceptions of a superstitious and ancestor-worshipping nation have been shaken.*

The tendency towards modern organisation and modern management, under Chinese control, is growing faster every day. But this had already begun under the last Manchu Emperors, one of whom was the first to formulate and decree a definite programme of reconstruction, upon the very same lines as the Republic is now following. The reactionary policy of the Dowager Empress and the Boxer risings checked progress for the time; but the attempts at political reaction against the Republic not long ago made at Peking have proved, by their complete failure, that few desire to go back to the old Imperial system, whether under a Manchu or a Chinese Emperor.

The era of a dominant autocracy residing in the Northern capital has come to an end. The Chinese of the great Provinces have decided that their local selfgovernment shall be preserved, federated for national business, in a republican shape, and that further development shall take place under the management of the Chinese themselves. It may be hoped, therefore, that the displacement of the Tartars, which has occurred so often before in Chinese history, will now be final. But the real revolution, as already said, is only beginning today; and it will have vast consequences. An educated and intelligent population, consisting of a huge industrious agricultural body and a commercial class of exceptional ability, brought into direct contact with subversive industrial methods on a large scale, must soon exercise a tremendous influence on the markets of the planet.

In Russia the overthrow of the Romanoffs was also in itself a superficial occurrence. It happened, as it were, by accident, and before either the forces of revolt

It was Turgot who said that if every one who lived since man began his existence on this planet had been provided with a cenotaph, it would long since have been necessary to destroy the tombs of the dead in order to furnish food for the living. Paul Louis Courier, writing for once in a grandiose style, declared, Les monuments se conservent où les hommes ont péri, à Baalbec, à Palmyre et sous les cendres de Vésuve.'

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