HEADMEN WARNED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 156, 3 July 1937, Page 22

HEADMEN WARNED.

ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. INDIAN" VILLAGE RAIDS. BOMBAY. May 28. India was a party to the Slavery Convention of 192fi, and has undertaken to bring about progressively the complete abolition of slavery. Tt was, however, found necessary to make reservations in respect of certain inaccessible areas on - the borders of Assam and Burma where it was thought it would be difficult to ■ implement the Government's undertaking. Recently the Government agreed to the reservations being withdrawn in respect of certain areas including the tribal area east of the N'aga Hills district, in Assam. As a first step towards the implementing of the Slavery Convention in this area, the Government of India decided to send an expedition to acquaint, the headmen of villages with the Government's determination to suppress the practice of slavery. The immediate cause of "the expedition was the conduct of one of the villages, which, with the assistance of other villages, had been raiding and destroying weaker villages in the neighbourhood and holding their captives as slaves in defiance of the Government's warnings. The expedition set out about the middle of November, and after some encounters, followed by prolonged negotiations, succeeded by December 13 in rescuing all the slaves except one. The Xa<ra tribesmen, head-hunters armed with a deadly sword called a duo, carried out many bloodthirsty raids on their peaceful neighbours a centurv cro. and expeditions against them were rtquent