Oh.. . by 'depleting the population', you mean people were being worked to death?

UGH... this kind of euphemistic language is part of the reason the acknowledgement of atrocities keeps being dodged and absolute lies prevail. SO, can we say, in other words, that the 'so-called civilising' mission of the English was actually causing much suffering and death?

Tsk... my school history books with their 'neutral ' point of view, never mentioned that!