WOMEN SLAVES IN AFRICA.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LI, Issue 16870, 27 October 1925, Page 4

WOMEN SLAVES IN AFRICA.

POKTUGUEBE MEJHODS INDICTED. ‘ * CONTKACT LABOR.*’ ’ Terrible stories of alleged brutality among the natives of Portugucso Africa since the abolition of slavery and the establishment of “contract; labor’' are related in a report by Professor E. A. Ross, of Wisconsin University, which has been presented to the Commission of the League of ■Nations on Temporary Slavery. Dr. J. C. Carlisle, ex-president of the Baptist Union, who has received an advance copy of the report, writes to the London ''Daily Express:—

“There is no slavery,in the country now, but contract labor, which* lias taken its place, is, in the opinion of tlib natives, worse than slavery itself. “Slavery ceased with tho full of th<» monarchy in 1010. The new system began in POLS. Portuguese landholders complained that the natives' were, hopelessly lazy, and that sufficient"' labor could not be obtained. The substitute was compulsory labor, a system by which the Government has the right to call for so many days’ work per month or year, for which there is supposed to be a payment. OUDGKED TO GO.

“When a white man applies for workers a soldier is scut to the village with the , administrator, who ealls out the chief man and notifies him that so many must be produced to go to work. If they arc sent 1e distant plantations they are provided with a thin jersey, a loin cloth, and in the cool season a blanket.: , , a Mr. Boss canrc: to the conclusion {hat to piosconto inquiries among officials would'have been quite useless. He visited natives villages in tjio bilsh, gathered the people together, and through an interpreter known to them, and in whom they had confidence, questioned them, as to compulsory labor and -the conditions of .life. “ Both sides of the question were, studied. The natives, declared that under the old order, although they were slaves, they were better-off, and received more for their work.

WITH BABIES. “The'stories of brutality arc terrible. Si xt.v-live, natives, were- observed Working oil tlic‘'public.highways, two-, thirds Of 'them women, twelve with babies on I heir backs. Some of the women had worked on road making fur three months, working a moiith at a time. When asked why their husbands did not work for them, the investigator was told that ' .sometimes, after the men had been taken from the village, a number of the women would be taken also. Some of the men had been sent to work on sugar plantations for a six months’ term. The planter told them he had bought them off the Government, and that they were ■ his slaves. They received only thoir food and a receipt for their' head tax. , “Now that the story is told, action must be taken. England is responsible by treaty to guarantee Portugal’s ■African possessions. The British Government, compelled by’public opinion and the Anti-Slavery Society, long ago secured alterations. But. the general conditions throughout the country remain tile same.’’