AN INDIAN WILBERFORCE.

Shannon News, 9 April 1925, Page 4

AN INDIAN WILBERFORCE.

There are 51,419 slaves in the State of Nepal, in the possession of 15,719 owners. The Maharaja of Nepal, Sir Chandra Jung, has announced to an assembly of notables his resolution to abolish slavery through his kingdom. "If you are all. agreeable, as I ardently hope you will be, let there be a total abolition of this institution," he said, "an institution so abominable in its nature that it should not be allowed to continue in any country, and, aa you al must feel, is contrary to every sentiment that ought to inspire the breast of man." Commencing on this action, which strikes at the very foundations of the social life of the couhtry, the "Westminster Gazette" observed: "The Maharaja takes rank at once among the greatest reformers of all history. His example must inevitably hasten abolition of slavery throughout the East, and makes more untenable than ever the position of States nearer to Europe, which have hitherto resisted the combined moral pressure of all civilised countries. It is good to know that even under a system where popular Government ha?, not yet penetrated an enlightened ruler can arise who will declare that the legal prohibition of human liberty | is 'so abominable in its very nature j it should not be allowed to continue in any country.' Khatmandu, like Lhassa, is one of the forbidden cities of the world, but the light of liberty now shines there while it has been extinguished in Rome and in Moscow."