FREEING OF SLAVES

Evening Post, Issue 28, 1 August 1936, Page 14

FREEING OF SLAVES

POSITION IN ITALY

A COST OF MILLIONS

The question of slavery in Abyssinia was prominent at the annual meeting of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society, which was held recently, says the "Manchester Guardian," but the first resolution dealt with the wider question, now much in the public mind, of possible changes in the control of colonial territories. It declared that in any such change the wishes of the inhabitants, as ascertained by an impartial tribunal, and treaty obligations with native rulers and other councils must be respected; that a system of mandatory trusteeship designed to advance the moral and material conditions of the inhabitants was essential; and that there must be prohibition of slavery in all its forms, of the economic exploitation of the territory in the interests of a single Power, and of the creation of native armies for purposes outside the territory. Lord Meston, moving the resolution, said that some organisations in this country had been drawn on insidiously to consider whether we should not surrender some of our colonies to countries which demanded a place in the sun. "BOUGHT LIKE GROCERIES." "Under what conditions would such a surrender be equitable, admissible, or ethically proper" he asked. "In this twentieth century is it conceivable that any nation or people, however backward, can be bought and sold like groceries across a counter We are determined not to be partners to handing over dependent people to another Power except at the declared wishes of the peoples concerned, and on the clear evidence, accepted by an impartial international tribunal, that the transfer is in their interests." Sir Norman Angell, seconding the resolution, suggested that Italy's real motive for desiring Abyssinia was to form a native army of perhaps as many as a million black conscripts. Such military conscription would be sheer slavery of the worst kind. The conscripts would be compelled not only to labour but to kill. "Against that," he said, "we must resolutely set our faces." The Dean of Johannesburg raised the question of Basutoland and Bechuanaland, saying that those territories should not be transferred to the Union of South Africa until it had been clearly proved by an impartial inquiry that they desired to be transferred from the protection of the British Government. "I have heard high authorities in Africa declaring that these territories are an asset," he said. "I have never heard them say that they would be a trust and a responsibility." SLAVES IN ABYSSINIA. Lord Lytton moved a resolution urging on the Council and the Assembly of the League of Nations that in any settlement of the conflict between^ Italy and Abyssinia provision should be made by the League for the emancipation of slaves throughout Abyssinia and the abolition of the slave trade in Abyssinia and the adjacent territories; He pointed out that the emancipation of slaves was a long and costiy affair. It took five years to carry out in the West Indies, and the cost of emancipating each slave was £28. In Burma it cost £4 10s a slave and in Nepal £4. He could not imagine that the Italians, if they had the task of emancipating the slaves in Abyssinia, could do it for less than £1, and they said there were 2,000,000 slaves to be freed. He had not heard yet that one penny had been set aside for that purpose. Lord Noel Buxton, who seconded the resolution, was in Abyssinia four years ,ago, and spoke,from his own knowledge of the great difficulties the Emperor had had to face in abolishing slavery, the opposition of many of the great Rases, the lack of a public opinion hostile to slavery, and the peculiar difficulty of liberating slaves from their position as retainers without pro-, viding some extensive and adequate system of alternative employment for them. The Emperor was remarkable for his energy, his skill, and his progressive ideas. "The opinion I had formed of him then," said Lord Buxton, "was supported by his brilliant and wise conduct during the war."