SLAVERY IN LIBERIA.

Evening Star, Issue 21724, 19 May 1934, Page 14

SLAVERY IN LIBERIA.

Before the League Council Captain Anthony Eden, Britain’s chief representative, has drawn pointed attention to the conditions that exist in Liberia. He employs the words “ appalling example of misgovernment and unrelieved tragedy.” This is surprising, for it was understood that effective measures had been taken to end the atrocities in this black republic. The irony of the situation is that this African State was founded a hundred years ago under American auspices to be a national home for slaves freed in the American States. Yet slave owning and slave trading became an established system. For years travellers had drawn attention to the conditions, but the apologists for Liberia had always denied them. At the Paris Peace Conference Great Britain protested against the practices still existing, but the Liberian officials again denied the accuracy of the reports. Allegations of inhuman methods continued, and in 1931 the League of-Nations set up a commission to make inquiries in the republic and submit a report. Geneva was the proper place in which to begin operations, as Liberia was ope of the signatories of the Treaty of Versailles and an original member of the League of Nations. After exhaustive inquiry the members of the commission (one white man specially qualified for the task and two negroes) submitted their report. Most of the allegations were supported by unimpeachable evidence. The report revealed that slavery in certain forms had been systematically practised. The words “ persecution, flogging, and illtreatment ’ were used. Men were captured and sold into slavery on the Spanish plantations at Fernando Po. That abomination, the pawn system, by which a - member of a family was pledged for debt, was in regular operation.

The whole of the report was studded with instances of cruelty, oppression, and violent death. Compulsion was practised on Liberian chiefs in the recruitment, . shipment of natives by excessive fines, intimidation, bribery, and deportatioii. In one, case a de-

mand was made for 200 men, despito the fact that the chief declared that the town did not contain so many. Cattle and rice were carried off and old men taken as hostages and forced to work on the farms. The report also declared that towns and villages were devastated, and that slave raids were carried out with their attendant horrors. A sensation was made by the revelations, which induced the United States to support the League and to issue a Note to Liberia stating that international opinion would no longer tolerate the twin evils of slavery and forced labour. The commission’s recommendations included the replacement of Liberian district officers, who were dishonest and corrupt, by Europeans: the illegalising of the domestic slavery and pawn system; the abolition of shipments to Fernando Po; more strict control of the frontier force; and wider education with a view to breaking down the barrier between the civilised and the uncivilised sections of the people. Liberia formally advised the League that it accepted in principle these recommendations. Apparently they have been more honoured in the breach than the observance.