SLAVERY TO-DAY

Hokitika Guardian, 27 March 1930, Page 8

SLAVERY TO-DAY

FIVE MILLION STILL IN SLAVERY. THE FLAG OF FREEDOM. i Lady Simon, the wife of Sir John Simon, who is devoting herself to the movement for the abolition of slavery, and whose aim is to see the nolle worn begun by Wilberforee completed in the present generation, has written a challenging and an outspoken hook on the subject entitled “Slavery,” which Hodder and Stoughton are publishing. Slavery, she feels, is, as Lord Cecil of Chclmwood declared at the League of Nations, “the greatest cl ime against the human race,” and she hopes, in sending out this book to the public, that they will feel as she feels about it, and be inspired to join her in striving to bring it to an end. “I was led to write it,” she said recently in an interview with a representative of “The Observer,”' “by a strong feeling that it is the duty of us all to do everything we can to support the international effort organised by the League of Nations to end slavery in the world. So many people think that the world was finished in the days of Wilberforee. The truth is that the very success of his crusade to change British law and practice by abolishing the slave trade and liberating slaves in British Colonies blinds many people to the tragic: fact that in many areas of the world even today the trade in slaves still continues, and slavery is practised.

THE CHINESE. PROBLEM. “It is, L am convinced, merely a question of arousing the public conscience for moie to he done. A feu years ago, when it was found that a system of slavery still existed in thcSierra Leone Protectorate, and tha when a slave ran away tiie courts fell bound to justify his recapture, British public opinion was deeply stirred. Mi iienery, at the Colonial Office, tools prompt action, and an Ordinan t abolishing slavery in the Protectorate was at once passed. “in tiie same way it is very encouraging to see how the present Government is taking more active sLeps to bring to an end the system of "Mui Tsai (child slavery) in Hong Kong. Bin •slavery in China is so miuli an integral part of the domestic life of tiit Chinese that it will he more difficult .0 bring it to an end than when it exists simply as trading. With all this I have dealt in my book.

“The Look deals, too, with slavery in Abyssinia, in the Sudan, in Arabia, and elsewhere. At the very least there are still in all parts of the world five million slaves, and probably six million. They are held as property to be sold at the will of their masters, just as they were in the days when Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote her memorable bojok on slavery, ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin.’ ’’

HORRORS OF THE SYSTEM. “Do you mean to say,’’ Lady Simon was asked, “that slates are ill-treated in these days as they were then?” “1 am sadly afraid that such barbarities still exist,” she said. “Take, lor example, Abyssinia. They begin there with the slave miner, who is a merciless man-hunter, raiding a village, massacring without mercy those who are useless to him and carrying off those whom he intends to sell to the slave traders. “Major Dailey has described a convoy of thousands of slaves marching across the desert, the men roped together, the women and children following as best they can. The little babies, when the mothers are too weak to carry them, are strapped two and three together on the mules. Thus they reach the slave market, where they are sold to the traders. Families cine broken up never to meet again. They are sold into a life of hopeless misery, which ends only with the grave.

“Their punishments are terrible. J have a picture of a slave who had stolen some trifling object. His hand and his foot had been cut off. and he was thrown into the market place to die in terrible suffering. Nobody seemingly cared, for he was a property lave. “There are terrible stories of ciiifl■'ii b' lighf in China, vouched for by Or Coates, a mission; l rv of twenty vears standing-—punishment by pouring boiling water over their hands and dislocating their wrists,”

THE LAND OF REFUGE. “Are there no Elizas in these days? Is there no escape from the bondage V’ “I have called one of my chapters, that on the Sudan,” Lady Simon said, ■ ‘The Land of Refuge,’ for it is to that land the wretched slaves from Abyssinia fly to get their freedom under the Britsh flag as in the old days, Eliza fled with her child across the ice-bound Ohio and gained her freedom and that of her child. “There is a world of drama in the 75 miles of desert bordering the frontier, where the poor creatures disencumber themselves of everything that will hamper them in their escape towards freedom, and express their joy when they see fluttering in the breeze the sometime' much-abused flag of old England, which waves them on to freedom and happiness. “The sentence in the letter widen was written hv S : r Austen Chamberlain on January 21st. 1928, when he was Foreign Secretary, to the AntiSlavery Society will, T am convinced, ■live encouragement and satisfaction <o every British subject, and to ever' friend of the tli'e Anti-Slavery Movement all over the world: ‘ln no ease.’ be declared, ‘lias any escaped been sent back to Abyssinia.’

THE WORK OF ABOLITION. “And what escape is there—or what hope is there of abolishing slavery—in other parts of tile 'W'brld ?” “The League of Nations is doing a great international work in getting reports from each country concerned on the steps that- are being taken. And what the Maharajah of Nepal lias done may he cited as a very good example of what can be done by an individual ruler if be really wishes to bring about die abolition of slavery in his countrv. Realising that from a humane as well as from an economic point of view slavery is had for a country, he determined to bring it to an end. He •■ailed a great meeting at Kitmandu. and there for three hours ho represented to his people and slave-owners the iniquity of slavery against their fellowmen His dramatic appeal resulted in the liberation of 52,000 slaves held hv 15,000 slave-owners. “From a British point of view we have also the evidence of the determination of Sir Harcourt Butler in lurma to bring slavery to an end, and ■ontinue its suppression in spite of the d'fficulties of eternal vigilance. “In the work which .1 am carrying on,” Lady Simon added, “I have the sympathetic support of my husband, who lias written a preface to the book I am bringing out on this burning question. He points out that to most of iis the subject is one which arouses a merelv historical interest, and says:—

“The object of my wife’s hook is to direct public attention to the snrvial of various forms of chattel slavery in the world to-day; to map out the areas chiefly affected anu to tabulate the information relating to each. It is an appeal to this generation to complete the work so nobly begun by Wilbprforco and Clarkson.”