SLAVE-RAIDING

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 293, 24 September 1935, Page 8

SLAVE-RAIDING

ABYSSINIAN POSITION. CONFUSION OF THOUGHT,

It seems to mo that a great deal of over-emphasis and unnecessary confusion is brought into the Italo-Abys-sinian dispute in connection with the slavery, raiding, and frontier incidents reported to occur in Abyssinia, writes Dr. T. A. Lambie to the “Manchester Guardian.” I speak as an American doctor who has lived in Abyssinia for 16 years and as one who loves the country so much, that I have become an Abyssinian citizen. I have built or helped to build four hospitals, and am the field director of an international, interdenominational missionary organisation that has, in the last few years, sent out about one hundred missionaries from the United. Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States of America. I have acted primarily us a missionary doctor, but more than that have been a great traveller and explorer. I was formerly physician to the Emperor Haile Selassie and members of the Court, and have through the years been his friend and sometimes his adviser. One must remember that until recent times Abyssinia was a confederacy of small nations, and not. a united people, that Menelik in his last years was too feeble and Lij Yasu too evil to help matters, and that Haile Selassie “the good” has only had about four years in which to try to sot liis house in order. Those of us who have seen the great progress he has made in that time can only hope

that he will be permitted to cany on with his great improvements without threat of war or other hindrance. The Free Born. As to slavery, when I was in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan 17 years ago there was—there probably still is today—a groat deal of “directed slavery” —viz., those born slaves and willing to remain so when well treated who are unwilling to take the necessary step

provided by. Government to emancipate themselves. This is also true of Abyssinia', but in neither country is it permissible for free-born persons to be enslaved nor for slaves to bo sold. That this is sometimes done without Government knowledge or sanction is true, but in. Abyssinia the Government is not conniving at it, but is seeking to put it down. Even in Europe and the United States there are still cases of people, especially women, being illegal- < ly hold or even soldi into white slavery. Governments are not omniscient and cannot right every wrong. With regard to the raids that have taken place, for six years before going to Abyssinia we lived on the western frontier of that country, within sight ■of the boundary, and even at that date, 1912-19, there was virtually no raiding. We should remember that border tribes from Kenya and the Sudan have also made raids into Abyssinia, the only difference being that we do not hear of these raids. Abyssinian raids have really been few and far'“between and without the consent or knowledge of the Addis Ababa Government. Considering the, nature of the

border country, rough and unsettled and extremely unhealthy for the moun-tain-living Abyssinian—far more unhealthy, indeed, than for the Britishofficered Sudanese Garrison Regiment or for the British-officered Kenya or Somali regiment—the wonder is that the Abyssinians have done as well as they have in keeping order on the frontier and preventing raids. The building of roads will change all this and go far to stop raiding.

Never Attacked. As for the numerous frontier incidents reported, are they more prevalent than in many other places in other parts of the world ? Every year one or two large caravans of mules, bearing from 60 to several' hundred mule-loads of silver dollars, go from Addis Ababa to Goerei, in Western Abyssinia. The guards to protect this money never number more than 15. Have they ever been attacked in this month-long journey or been robbed of the dollars ? Not once! Could this money be carried in like fashion in the United States or many parts of Europe with like safety? In Chicago, for instance? I believe not. My wife and I never carry weapons, nor do we have a guard, but though having travelled many thousands of miles in the border provinces and 1 across the frontiers we have only lost three mules by theft in all that time. Not once on these journeys ini wild districts have we been molested or had our goods stolen. We have felt as safe in Abyssinia as in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan or, ill fact, anywhere else. There has been a great deal of talk to the effect that Britain has had her slice of Africa, so now let Italy have hois. Such, talk strikes one as heartless, and makes no distinction between Abyssinia and the rest of Africa. It is one thing to go in and, punish Zulus, Hottentots, head-hunters, and slaveraiders and establish peace and order amongst them, and it is quite another thing to seek to annex a land that has been at least nominally Christian for centuries and whose monarch is absolutely committed to law and order, the suppression of the slave trade, and treaty enforcement. If this wrong is perpetrated then there seems indeed but little hope for all minorities of backward peoples, and we return to jungle law and the survival of the fittest. If the League and public opinion can be flouted by Italy and solemn treaties be broken at will, when the ink with which they are written is scarcely dry, the future is ominous indeed. • The United States, in her aloofness, even before the full text of the appeal has had time to reach her, replies that she will not help Abyssinia. Other Powers seem to he too full of fears of possible implications to give Italy a word of definite warning, and so the finest of the African peoples, in my estimation, is apparently to have no help from civili-

sation or Christianity, but is to be left to fight lien battle alone. It seems a most deplorable state of affairs. If it js impossible to assist Abyssinia in any other way, could we not send out doctors and nurses with hospital equipment, and help to mitigate the horrors of war that now seem inevitable, and thus through, our medical assistance show appreciation of the Emperor, who was feted- and lauded a few short years ago and who has conscientiously sought in every way to help his own people to higher levels?