RUNAWAY SLAVES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20190, 30 August 1927, Page 9

RUNAWAY SLAVES

SIERRA LEONE COURT’S RULING MASTER "MAY RECAPTURE THEM. (Frees Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON. August 26. The newspapers are publishing articles and letters voicing concern at the Sierra Leone court’s judgment that a master may recapture a runaway slave notwithstanding that the latter recahes British territory. Dr Wright (Bishop of Sierra Leone), who is spending a holiday in England, suggests in a letter to the Observer that instead of waiting for the slaves to purchase their freedom, as is already provided, at £4 each, England should hand over sufficient money to redeem them all. The immediate difficulty is that the amount must be unlimited, because the number of slaves is unknown. The Observer sympathises with the framers of the protectorate ordinance which provides for gradual emancipation by stipulating that the slaves shall become free at an owner's death, and that none can be born in slavery. Individuals have the right to purchase their freedom, but it is urged that a more rapid abolition is now necessary. “ Even the mildest kind of slave hunting is intolerable under any flag,” adds the Observer. “ Clearlv the ordinance must bo amended.”—Sydney Sun Cable. The colony of Sierra Leone began with the cession of a strip of land to Captain John Taylor on August 22. 1788, to provide a homo for liberated slaves or other African natives who had found their way to London. From lime to time additions were made to the colony, and in 1807 the peninsula of Sierra Leone was ceded by its native ruler. In 1896 a ■protectorate was established over the hinterland, after its boundraies had been fixed by agreement between Great Britain and France.