MECCA PILGRIMS LOWER THE SLAVE TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 76, 31 March 1934, Page 17

MECCA PILGRIMS LOWER THE SLAVE TRADE

i olticeis. with pcisoual o\pcn once ot the Eed Sc.i • s la\e tiade me <ou-vmccd that it can. bo stamped out "ii'y by maintaining a foreo ot powci■ful, . hi^ll-spoofl, armed motor launehcb -it ream. TJie vessels would have to be scawoithy, but of light draught, writes Hector By water in the London "Daily Telegiaph." An officer -who."formerly.- commanded one of the two Bntish sloops detailed to pievent the shipping of negio slaves into Aiabia told me that the closest international- co-operation would bo necessary to check the trade. He said: "Our present system o± naval counteraction is largely futile, and it is exceedingly rare that our patrols arc able to intercept and capture tho Arab dhows which specialise in this business."

Tho most notoiious slave tiadeis belong to the Black Eysa tube, which inhabits the oxtiemc south-western lunteiland ot the Red Sea Xot mfiequently they make raids into the Sudan, boinetimes canying off the population of,a whole district, men, women, and chiMien, in chains. Tliea by devious routes, the ' wretched '.* captives aio marched to tho Gulf of Tajomabi and cauiod aeioss the manow btraits. o£ Bab el-Mandcb to Aiabia. 'Che two most notoiious poitb of embarkation are Tajourti and Obolc.

The big dhows usuallj make the lun at ' night, and on appioaching the Aiabian side lie offshoio opposite Perim. Heie the slave convoy is dispersed and transhipped into" ama'll dhows, which also sail at night and run close inshore, threading their way between reefs where no large man-of-war could follow them.

Eventually tho slaves me landed in the neighbourhood, of Khor Gulafaykah and inarched into the Aiabian interior, the two great slave markets being at Mecca and Taif. Once on A.iabnan soil the unfoitunate negroes

aie, as a rule, comparatively v;elV treated, and it.is .said, that..the majority settle down contentedly under their new masters.

The fact remains that they had been forcibly torn from their homes, chained together, and marched great' distances under the most brutal treatment. - The evidence suggests,' in fact, that all the former horrors of the slave trade are being re-enacted today on the African shores- of "the Bed" Sea.

The two British sloops in. those waters do their best, as do the Italianand - Preach men-of-war-'.that co-oper-ate with theni; but for the reasons explained above they are virtually powerless. The motor launches which naval men suggest for the work' would have to be fairly large owing to the heavy weather often encountered in the Straits, but. their draught would have been sufficiently light for them to pursue the slave ships through the. reef-infested' shallows which are barred to an ordinary slooj). High speed is essential, for some of the light Arab dhows have been known to sail at 15 kuots.

In recent yeais tbe volume of slave traffic across the jKecl Sea lias somewhat diminished, ' owing, strangely enough, to the reaction of tho world, economic crisis. Money being; .short in Arabia —which derives most of its revenue from tho pilgrimage -of the faithful to' Mecca—there is less demand for slaves; but at the first return of prosperity this demand will revive, and unless the necessary action is taken the traffic in '"black ivory" promises to become as brisk as ever.

I am assured on the best authority that the local British administrations do everything possible to stamp out the. slave. trade,"-and that in recent years no slaves have been embarked from aiiy territory under British control.