NO MORE SLAVERY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 181, 21 October 1927, Page 1

NO MORE SLAVERY

SIERRA LEONE DECISION STEP IN WORLD MOVE British Wireless—Press Assn.—Copyright RUGBY, Wednesday. Before Sir John Simon sailed in August for South America, he drew attention to the majority decision of the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone permitting an owner to recapture a runaway slave in the Protectorate. Sir John arrived yesterday at Southampton. In an interview he expressed his satisfaction that the hiatus in the law revealed by the Court’s decision had been so promptly repaired by the Sierra Leone Legislative Council. It was, said Sir John, a remarkable example of the force of public opinion. The almost universal outburst, which had followed his disclosure, and the approval of the action so promptly taken by the Colonial Office and the Sierra Leone Legislature proved that public sentiment was no more tolerant of slavery to-day than was the ease in Wilberforce’s day. He hoped they were in a fair way now to remove what remained of slavery, however mild its form, from British Protectorates It had not existed in any British colony since 1833, but the Protectorate, strictly speaking, was not British soil, though in Africa the line between a colony and a Protectorate was extremely thin. It was a great thing to clear out any remnants of slavery from areas Britain could directly control. By so doing they strengthened the hands of all who were working for the final abolition of slavery throughout the world.—A. and N.Z.