GRAVE SLAVERY CHARGES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 26 August 1926, Page 8

GRAVE SLAVERY CHARGES.

8.000,000 BLACKS IN “HELL ON EARTH.”

Sensational allegations of cruelty and slavery in Portuguese Africa are to be investigated by tlae League oi Nations at an early date. From the evidence submitted it is charged that avaricious white men, grafting officials, and greedy planters are making , the- lives of the black population a' veritable -hell by their cruelty and callous indifference to suffering. Some 5,000,000 native men . and women living in the- Aiozambique and Angola districts are affected. It is declared that their wages are stolen by dishonest officials, they are taken far from their jungle homes by arrogant native police from hostile tribes, and whipped and abused, and often starved. Formal and official protests are likely from the League of Nations and the Federal Council of Churches in America. But the most active industrial crusader is an American minister, once a missionary in Africa.

LIKE' WILD ANIMALS. He i-s the Rev. Fred R. Bunker,. now pastor of the Wilton Congregational Church, at Wilton, Conn. Air. Bunker first went to Africa, in 1891. He spent many years in the hush with the natives. “Now lie is devoting his energies to restoring their freedom. The most serious situation, Air. Bunker believes, is in Mozambique. A. native chieftain named Machiineji, whom he visited, he declares, t-old him that even the- women and old men were taken and forced to work on the roads. . “But worst of all,” said Chier Macliimeji, “is that our children are growing up like wild animals. The old discipline of their fathers is passing. The mothers cannot govern their boys and girls. They give no heed, but only mock at the old men—old in years and old in wisdom Even the young boys drink Usopi, and the girls, mere children, are degraded. “Slaves!” -he moaned, rocking back and forth. “Just slaves! All that Remains is this.” On several occasions Mr. Bunker came across -several hundred blacks driven by other, natives with whips. They were herded into box cars in a siding. These men, he states, had been drafted by the native -police and M-ere being taken to Beira, the labour distribution centre.

Under the Portuguese colonial lavy all native men .from 18 to 60 years of age are required to furnish at least three months of labour a year to the Government or a corporation authorised by it. The law states, with, unconscious irony, that the natives must “volunteer” this labour. But the natives, despising the system, have no intention of volunteering. Thereby they are open to the charge of disobeying the law. Native policemen are then sent out to recruit the necessary number. It is alleged that these policemen have been quick to -learn European methods of grafting. If told to procure 100 labourers they ask lor 200, and release the balance for a proper consideration. The experiences of from 6000 to 7000 natives have been obtained first- hand by Professor Ross and Dr. Cramer, two Americans u-ho M-ent to Angola and Mozambique to make a detailed study of the situation. They boar out many of Air. Bunker’s allegations.