A LIBEL ACTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9670, 8 December 1909, Page 5

A LIBEL ACTION.

SLAVE-GROWN COCOA.

FART HUnG, DA MAGES,

Received December 7, 10.10 p.m LONDON. December 7.

The case in which Cadbury Brothers sued the "Standard" for libel published on September 28th, 1908, commenting on Cadburys' delay in ceasing to purchase slave-grown cocoa from the Portuguese isla«ids of Sao Thome and Principe, in the Gulf of Guinea, West Africa, .has been concluded.

Sir Edward Grey, Foreign Secretary, in bis evidence, stated that Messrs Cadbury asked him to take steps to stop the scandal in 1906, and he then advised them not to agitate publicly until the Foreign Office had approached Portugal. The jury awarded Cadbury a farthing damages. The judge refused to deprive the plaintiffs of their costs.

Mr J. Burtt was sent to Sao Thorns and Principe last year by British cocoa manufacturers and a German firm to investigate condiuons pre> vailing in those islands. The twu islands have become within the last few years the most productive cocoagrowing regions in tne world. Roughly speaking, one-fifth of the world's supply of cocoa comes from them. The plantations are cultivated bv imported black labour, as the natives wil l not woik. The great majority of the imprrted labourers come from Angola, official bulletins showing that in five years 18,000 of these entered the two islands. Fines are a very common form of punishment, and although corporal punishment is prohibited by law it is nevertheless extensively practised Iu more serious cases a piece of hide known as a "chicotte" is sometimes me', occasionally a thonji of thick rubber. The roca (enclosure) system places an almost unlimited power in the hands of the planter. There are provisions in the Royal decree as to j repatriation, but in prictice note-, patriation of the labourer from An- j gola ever takes place. He never returns to the mainland; on this point all authorities are unanimous. That the Angolan does not remain voluntarily in the islands is shown by his frequent attempts to escape. The labourers are supposed to enter the service of the planters by their own free will, but the greater number of them are obtained by fraud. Frequently on his journeys Mr Burtt found skeletons and shacUl j s by the wayside. The amount paid by the planter to tbt labour agent ?s from £%n to £4O a head, which is considerably in excess of legitimate transit expenses. j