DUG HIS OWN GRAVE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 3750, 8 February 1913, Page 10

DUG HIS OWN GRAVE.

ROUGH TREATMENT' OF NATIVES IN GERMAN NEW GUINEA. SHOT ON SLIGHEST PRETENCE. The natives in German New Guinea get little consideration from their Tueton masters. If they attempt any humbug they are punished very severely. In fact, from a British standpoint, the methods adopted are brutal in the extreme. Some of the stories of the rough treatment of the natives by Germans are revolting.

Miners who have been in the German area prospecting tells you that the nigger gets about as much consideration shown him as his own village dog. If -a-nigger sees a German passing he gives the white a wide berth. If he is commanded to do a thing he does it in fear and trembling Examples have been made of those who disobeyed commands. On one occasion a native actually dug his own grave, and other natives who were watching the process performed the duty of shovelling mother earth on top of him. The native in question was a deserter. He had given much trouble, and cleared out on a couple of occasions. His second desertion proved to lie his doom. A German- officer ordered him to “dig.” He stood over him with a loaded revolver. The nigger dug as if his very life depended on how hard lie worked. He little knew that his death hung on the effort. Then, when he had penetrated the required depth, a shot rang out. and the perspiring native fell to the bottom with a heavy thud, The other natives standing by, terrified by the incident, cleared for their lives. They were quickly brought back. Their duty was pointed out to them and the dead native was soon hidden from view with the earth he had so recently dug out. Such cruelty is supposed to take place with the cognisance of the German authorities. They work the native to the utmost, no one can blame them for' working the native to tPe best advantage. But -daughter suo'> as this, although the victims he niggers, hardly fits in with what an Australian public considers proper punishment for an ordinary offencm

It is only now and then that such stories are made known, and then in such a casual manner as to lead cue to the belief that there are bevig enacted in the German area cruelties of such a revolting nature as to justify .the territory under the sway el tie Germans being referred to as hum Lor Congo. “I know of cases in German Now Guinea, not very far from Kaboul, the capital.” said a miner, “of ratives being shot down before the (yes of other natives. A German ltiggtrdriver. becoming exasperated at a toy who didn’t ‘savee’ too readily, despatched the black without as-much es a warning.”