HOW THE MODERN SLAVE TRADER WORKS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 178, 18 July 1908, Page 3

HOW THE MODERN SLAVE TRADER WORKS.

DOES SLAVERY EXIST IN THE BRITISH DOMINIONS? It is one of the delusions of modern civilisation that slavery does not exist. But there are in the world to-day thousands of black slaves labouring under the most hideous form of forced labour, which is only accentuated by the absurd attempts to make them officially free' by means of legal documents couched in phraseology the negroes cannot possibly understand.

A typical slave-tradera' country is said to exist in the Portuguese colony on the south-west coast of Africa. There arc immense cocoa plantations in the Portu- '• guese islands of San Thome and Principe and to obtain labourers for them there is a group of dealers who make a speciality of providing negroes. These men organise special parties, who explore the interior of African forests and seize hundreds of unfortunate negroes, who arc immediately driven back to the coast in ' a manacled condition. Whole families are captured and sold in lots, according to physical condition and age. The" irony of the whole affair is that everything is done on a legal basis. There is a special Government agent at Angola, whose duty it is to prevent the exploitation of slaves. He, of course, ' will not admit that slavery exists. Thj system is too perfect. But the negroes think otherwise. Their fate is one of lifelong hard labour, though they are engaged as labourers on the plantation for a certain number of years at what appears to be a reasonable wage. This wage, it is alleged, is never paid, and the '-legal slave" knows that he will never get it. At the point of the sword he signs an agreement he cannot read, engaging himself body and soul to the traders. Once on the island he never leaves, for at the end of his period of five or seven years the farce of signing on again is gone through, and so on uni.il ; he is too old, when he is sent back to his primeval dwelling not a penny the richer for his life of labour. It is very seldom indeed that any of these slaves live to old age. Five years is generally enough for the strongest constitution. To avoid the paying of wages a system of fines is introduced, by which the worker cannot possibly escape losing his nominal wage. Floggings are, of course, everyday occurrences, women suffering as well as men. They live in huts when not engaged in the fields, and even it the wretched creatures could escape their guards they would be utterly unabe to leave the island. Thus the geographical position saves the owners thousands of pounds. Kin» Leopold derives nearly £1,000,000 each year from his Congo property, and most of this huge sum is, according to missionaries and others, made out of the blood and tears of helpless slaves, who are forced to bring in so much rubber each month to the Belgian monarch a agents. The same farce of so-called voluntarv signing-on is gone through here, an"d, of course, a certain price is mid for the rubber, but the dealers are anything but extravagant when trading with natives. Not to put too fine a point ■■ upon it, the valuable product is obtained for next to nothing by King Leopolds • representatives, and the natives require : persuasion to induce them to _ find c I rubber for the white man. It is this I "persuasion" which has led to the inf ternational protest against the Congo < atrocities. Very often the pcrsuadeis 1 have not stopped at torture and mut.lat tion when dealing with recalcitrant ne-

groes. Great Britain is a sort of ovcr-lor ,f Zanzibar, but we still have g.ea lifficultv in putting down slavery m tn 'ulWs dominions. The latter w edu atcd in England, and to a certain ex ent sympathises with British ideas o reedora. But there is the revenue t,e considered, and so slavery, slight liseuised, exists in Zanzibar. Lately have learned the Portuguese riek of making the negro sign an in lenture form, thus binding himself J. rork for a nominal salary for a certain lumber of years. The trade is, of course, the most profit,ble in the world, for good slaves fetch Jmptin- Fices, and after the human disposed- of the agent has no urther interest in his career. It co»t* evy little to secure the victims, and wins to the absence of railways the la-es are compelled to march to their legation. Feeding is not a serious S, of expenditure; the surrounding ountry wiU provide enough food for the 'ifthe'case of a negro who looks likely o retain his physical fitness until the ml journey little trouble is takn and he s left to shift for himself m he matter of food. The weakhngs, Lever must be fattened up. if po.We and *> the dealer gives them some t ention-* Even then this means that