SLAVE-GROWN COCOA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14235, 4 December 1909, Page 7

SLAVE-GROWN COCOA.

LIBEL ACTION COMMENCED. By Telegraph.— Vt&es Association.— Copyright. London, December 2. Cadbury Brothers are suing the Standard for libel published on September 28, 1908, commenting on Cadburys' delay in ceasing to purchase slave-grown cocoa from + he Portuguese islands of Sao Thome and Principe, in the Gulf of Guinea, West Africa.

Sir Edward Grey, Foreign Secretary, in his evidence, stated that Messrs. Cadbury asked him to take steps to stop the scandal in 1906, and he then advised them not to agitate publicly until the Foreign Office had approached Portugal.

Mr. J. Burfct was sent to Sao Thome and Principo last year by British cocoa manufacturers and a German firm to investigate conditions prevailing in those islands. Iho two islands havo become within the last few years the most productive cocoa-growing regions in the world. Roughly speaking, one-fifth of the world's supply of cocoa comes from them'. The plantations are cultivated bv imported black labour, • as' the natives will not work. The great majority of the imported labourers como from Angola, official bulletins showing that in five years 18,000 of these entered the two islands. Fines aro a very common form of punishment, and although corporal punishment is prohibited by law it is nevertheless extensively practised. In more serious cases a piece of hide known as a " chicotte is sometimes used, occasionally a thong of thick rubber. The rooa (enclosure) system places an almost unlimited., power in the hands of the planter. There are provisions in the Royal decree as to repatriation, but in practice, no repatriation of the labourer from Angola ever takes place. He never returns to the mainland; on this point all authorities are unanimous. That the Angolan does not remain voluntarily in the islands is shown by his frequent attempts to escape. The labourers are supposed to enter the service of the planters by their own free will, but the greater number of them are obtained by fraud. Frequently on his journeys Mr. Burtt found sketetons and shackles by the wayside. The amount paid by the planter to the labour agent is from £25 to £40 a head, which is considerably in excess of .legitimate transit expenses.