The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGM0NT SETTLER. MONDAY, MAY 13, 1912. WEST AFRICA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 13, 13 May 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, MAY 13, 1912. WEST AFRICA.

Recently the organising secretary of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society, the Rev. J. 11. Harris, returned to England from a twelve months' mission to West Africa, where lie had heen sent to enquire into Congo reforms and the conditions prevailing in the Cocoa Islands. Mr Harris, who was accompanied by his wife, traversed some 5000 miles of Central African territory. Their investigations, apart from the Congo, had taken them into Southern Nigeria and the Cold Coast, German Togoland and the Cameroons, the French Congo, Portuguese Angola, and San Thome. Asked if he was satisfied with the present conditions in the Congo, Mr Harris said lie could give but a negative answer, but at the same time, in fairness to the Belgian Government, ho gladly admitted that they had practically succeeded in putting a stop to those brutalities which roused the conscience of Europe. But, in spite of ;ill the promises made at the Berlin Conference, the tribes of the Congo basin remain today the most impoverished and the most oppressed of any political division of the continent. Their indigenous system of land tenure, their tribal institutions, and indeed their whole social fabric have been ruthlessly destroyed, and so far there has been no serious attempt at reconstruction. Mr Harris, is, however, hopeful that Belgium will soon decide to make the financial sacrifices necessary to placing the administration upon a basis which will meet i treaty obligations and raise the Belgian colonial standard to the level of other African Powers. Further questioned regarding his views on the situation in Angola and San Thome, Mr Harris said: "The Portuguese Gov- ! eminent has succeeded in reforming I for a. time the 'recruitment' of labour- ; ers on the mainland, but the position j on the islands of the slaves as disI tinct from genuine 'services' and their conditions of liberation are bound to | cause the deepest concern. Personally [ see no alternative but to urge the Portuguese Government to liberate the whole 30,000 or 40,000 slave;; on the cocoa plantations within a specii lied period." Speaking of public opinion in the Portuguese colonies on the subject of their transfer to another Power, Mr Harris said that the Portuguese colonist was extremely patriotic, and to a man they are opposed to any disposal of their West African possessions. Amongsf the colonist;; of I vui Thome and Principe there was conj siderable concern, for they know that I by maintaining slavery on the cocoa ; islands they have incurred British dis- ! pleasure and that England may not j lie unwilling to see the islands pass i under the control of another Power if the abolition of slavery can be thereby secured. One of the Portuguese planters had told him that local feeling was so intense that if the Lisbon Government transferred the colonies to another Power the planters would immediately destroy every cscoa i :ree on the islands. The cocoa ph.r.taj Lions are undoubtedly valuable. They j are second to none in West Africa, I and are an emphal ic tribute to the colonising ability of the Portuguese.