November i, 1909.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



45 



was aware that the American consul had also made a report 

 to his government on this company, and whether he could see his 

 way to get hold of that report. 



Mr. McKinnon Wood: "I was not aware of it." 



AN OFFICIAL DENIAL. 



The publication in the London paper of the charges which are 

 here referred to, elicited a communication from the Peruvian 

 charge d'affaires in London, as follows : 



To the Editor of Truth — Sir: In the issue of your valuable paper of 

 22nd inst., appears an article entitled "The Devil's Paradise." in which 

 you narrate the atrocities which are alleged to have been perpetrated 

 against the aborigines of the Putumayo region by the Peruvian Amazon 

 Co., Limited. This legation categorically denies that the acts you describe, 

 and which are severely punished by our laws, could have taken place with- 

 out the knowledge of my government on the Putumayo river, where Peru 

 has authorities appointed direct by the supreme government, and where a 

 strong military garrison is likewise maintained. 



The territory of Putumayo is not a sort of no man's land, as described by 

 you, and is in direct communication, by steamer and other rapid routes, 

 with Iquitos, the capital of the important Department of Loreto. Iquitos. on 

 the other hand, is connected by telegraphic and wireless installations with 

 Lima and the whole of the republic, and it is impossible to admit that acts 

 of the nature described could have been committed without the guilty parties 

 being promptly and severely punished by the authorities. The quotation 

 referred to, from the two local newspapers, La Felpa and La Sancton, should 

 not be given the least credit, as both papers were started by the same 

 editor, and were short lived. 



The said papers published fantastic crimes alleged to have been committed 

 by the employees of the firm of J. C. Arana y Hermanos, and when the em- 

 ployees of this old and well-known house commenced proceedings for libel 

 against the editor he disappeared in order to evade the grave responsibility 

 he had incurred. These facts are well known at Iquitos. 



There are other English rubber companies in Peru — as the Inambari com- 

 pany, for instance — who can speak as to the treatment always given to the 

 natives, and who will certainly not confirm the information contained in 

 your article. Besides, is it possible to believe that traders, anxious to secure 

 abundance of labor, should commit iniquitous acts of the nature described, 

 and only conducive to the annihilation of the very hands of which they 

 are in such great need? 



1 must, therefore, repudiate in the most deliberate manner the ac- 

 cusation contained in the said article, and I protest most emphatically 

 against the suggestions therein made, that soldiers of the Peruvian army 

 could be capable of committing the acts of inhumanity described by Mr. 

 Hardenburg. - - - 



E. LEM'BECKE, Charge d' Affaires. 



Peruvian Legation, London, September 25, 1909. 



ALL AMAZON RUBBER NOT "RED." 



There is visiting in New York a gentleman long resident on 

 the Amazon, at one time a journalist and again in the crude 

 rubber trade, to whom the articles in Truth were referred by 

 The India Rubber World. 



"The details in Mr. Labouchere's articles do not differ ma- 

 terially from reports current on the Amazon not so long ago. I 

 had reason to desire to get at the truth in this matter, but neither 

 principals in the Peruvian company nor representatives of the 

 Peruvian government with whom I came in contact would make 

 definite statements, either negative or affirmative. From my 

 knowledge of the rubber situation, however, I do not doubt that 

 the story in the London publication has a very solid basis in fact. 



"Does it follow that Amazon rubber in general is the product 

 of such cruel labor conditions?" 



"Oh, no. The greater part of the Amazon production comes 

 from districts in which rubber gathering has become a fixed 

 industry, whereas the development in Peru is recent, and there 

 has not been time for system to be organized. 



"But that is not the chief consideration. In Brazil, including 

 the Acre territory, rubber is extracted mainly by workers from 

 Ceara and other southern Brazilian states. Originally they made 

 an annual migration from their homes up the Amazon, returning 

 home at the end of the rubber season. Gradually these workers 

 began to make settlements up the Amazon, so that a permanent 

 rubber gathering population is coming into existence. The 

 Indians of Brazil never have figured much in the rubber interest, 

 and so have not become subject to such outrages as are charged 

 in the Putumavo district. 



"In other words, the Brazilian Indians, generally savage, and 

 sometimes cannibals, cannot be brought under control as rubber 

 workers. For that matter the Cearenses — white men — cannot be 

 brought under control. They never lose sight of their rights, and 

 will brook no unfair treatment. From what I have seen on up- 

 river seringaes, I should say that the Italian laborer has no such 

 readiness with the stiletto as the Cearenses, and it would fare 

 badly with a rubber estate manager who attempted any treatment 

 of them which they might regard as unfair." 



"Then how about the Peruvian Indians?" 



"They are wholly pacific by nature," was the answer. "They 

 are different in every way. Their country has been invaded by 

 seekers for rubber, in which material they felt no interest before, 

 and they have been placed in a condition of involuntary servitude, 

 as indicated by the London newspaper's articles. The Indians 

 in the rubber districts of Bolivia are also pacific, as a rule, and 

 capable of control to an extent which makes many of them, no 

 doubt, absolute slaves, though no stories of atrocities such as 

 alleged in connection with Peru have been reported from Bolivia. 

 Yet I remember a story of how Nicolas Suarez. to avenge the 

 death of his brother at the hands of the natives, sent his agents 

 out on a punitive expedition which resulted in the death of 300 

 of them. [See The India Rubber World. April 1, 1905.] 



"But no outrages are likely to be heard of as being perpetrated 

 upon Brazilian white men — the emigrants from the state of 

 Ceara, for instance — for reasons which I have mentioned already." 



LIBEL SUITS IN THE CONGO. 



The American missionary, the Rev. W. H. Sheppard. on trial 

 at Leopoldville, charged with "calumnious denunciation" and 

 libel by representatives of the Cie. du Kasai [see The India 

 Rubber World, July 1, 1909., page 345], was acquitted on October 

 5. The Rev. Dr. William Morrison, another American mis- 

 sionary, was also named as a defendant when the actions were 

 first instituted, but the charges against him were withdrawn. 

 The company sought to recover $6,000 from Mr. Sheppard. The 

 latter is described by the Richmand Leader as a colored man, a 

 native of Virginia and highly respected in the State. He is men- 

 tioned also as having done much to create British sentiment in 

 respect of alleged atrocities practised upon native rubber gath- 

 erers in the Congo. 



A later report is that the Kasai rubber syndicate will appeal 

 from the decision in the Sheppard case. 



RUSSIAN DUTIES ON RAW RUBBER. 



ENGLISH exporters of raw rubber have, through the Lon- 

 don Chamber of Commerce, according to The India- 

 Rubber Journal, pointed out to the Anglo-Russian Chamber 

 in St. Petersburg that raw rubber imported into Russia from 

 Africa and the Amazon territories is subject to a duty of I 

 rouble 50 copecks per pood — or id. per pound — whilst for 

 Ceylon and general Asiatic produce the duty levied is 8 

 roubles per pood — or 5a!. per pound. The difference in the 

 rate is explained, says an official journal, by the fact that 

 Asiatic rubber is counted not as raw. but as wrought material. 

 The English merchants argue that this is an error, for the 

 Asiatic product is just as unwrought as rubber from other 

 parts of the world, and if it happens to be of superior quality 

 that is due only to special selection. In view of the fore- 

 going, since the market value of African and American rub- 

 ber, on the one hand, and of Asiatic, on the other, is tht 

 same, the latter is shut out from Russia, which is known to 

 be one of the largest consumers of raw rubber in the world, 

 and both English merchants and Russian consumers would 

 benefit by an equalization of the duties. The Anglo-Russian 

 Chamber will consider the point on an early date, and will 

 invite representatives of Russian manufacturers of rubber 

 goods to the consultation. 



