PAST ACHIEVEMENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 91, 14 October 1932, Page 9

PAST ACHIEVEMENTS

WHAT LEAGUE HAS DONE

Estimates of the number of slaves in the world place the total at from 3,000,000 to 6,000,000; Beginning in 1922, the League of Na tions gave centralised force and form to the various spasmodic movements for the abolition of slavery. In the next year a-commission of eight men was appointed to go thoroughly into the subject. Two years • later the Temporary Slavery Commission made its report in a document which shocked the world. The members of, the commission were men with' wide colonial' experience. Their report stated that slave raiding, slave trading, and slave ownIngj together with, border-line systems scarcely if at all distinguishable from slavery, were .widespread, and that these evils or the kindred evilsof debtbondage, domestic slavery, forced labour,, or "simpler acts," existed in nineteen political areas. While individual evidence and cases were withheld, the nineteen regions were specified as follows:— ' - \ ■ Abyssinia, Algeria, China, Egypt. Eritrea, the "Fair East," the Hedjaz, Kufra, Liberia; Morocco, SOnth Morocco, Eiode Oro, East Sahara, West Sahara, British Sqmaliland, French Somali-' land, Italian Somaliland, the Sudan, and South Tripoli. SUPPRESSING THE EVIL. Most of these signatories to the League Slavery. Convention whose territories were involved in the report began immediately to take action looking toward the eventual eradication of slavery from their Dominions and the immediate mitigation of the attendant evils. Learning that the Arabian slave traders carried cargoes of human freight across the. Bed Sea in their dhows, the British Government undertook a patTol with armed vessels to discourage the traffic, capture offenders, and break up the supply. French, Italian,, and British troops in other places kept watch on the routes used by, slave-raiders and slave-smugglers. In Burma, British administrative officials followed up the release of slaves by' inquiries about them on periodic visits. The Hedjaz and Abyssinia were led to outlaw the traffic and to cot operate with the League in suppressive measures. American influence was brought to bear in Liberia, The Gov-. ernor-General of the.Sudan in 1930 reported that of 13,000 slaves in the White Nile Province 3000 : had been freed and the other 10,000 advanced to "a state,of semi-independence needing no further strengthening" at the time. • ' •■'.••-. " CONDITIONS IN CHINA. In China,, where unsettled conditions and lack of a strong central Government have been stumbling blocks, repression is another problem.. Slavery flourishes there chiefly in the western part, although' no less a dignitary than the Archbishop of' Canterbury, speaking in the House of Lords in 1925, said that an eminent Chinese asserted that slaves, chiefly girls, were bought and sold in .Shanghai in the midst of the European zones of influence. Both President King and*' Vice-Pre-sident Yancey, of Liberia, resigned last year, it is believed, because-of foreknowledge of a Note from Secretary. Siimson that failure of the Liberian Government1 to undertake "comprehensive reforms" in ending slavery and repression would result in the ''final' alienation of the friendly feeling which the American Government and people have entertained for Liberia." The report of the International Commission of Inquiry on conditions in Liberia was termed "a shocking-indictment of the Liberian Government's policy: of suppression of natives, permitted; if not indulged in, by nearly all the high officials of Liberia, including- tho VicePresident of the Republic.-" -.'■.'.