The Daily News TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 1931, SLAVERY SUPPRESSION.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 March 1931, Page 6

The Daily News TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 1931, SLAVERY SUPPRESSION.

The action of the League, of Nations in appointing an international committee to inquire into the existence of slavery in the native West African Republic of Liberia affords proof of the worldwide utility of that beneficent organisation. In the present age of democratic freedom it is almost impossible to envisage the time when the English, in 1562, firpt took part in the slave trade, in the course of time outdoing all other nations in the extent to which they carried the traffic, as also, it is said in the cruelty with which they conducted it. . Exactly a century has elapsed since the British Government emancipated all the slaves of the Crown, and during this period it is only, fair to credit that Government with a praiseworthy activity in the suppression of the slave trade and the enforcement of treaties entered into by other nations for the abolition of this inhuman traffic. In spite of that activity it has been found impossible to uproot this blot upon civilisation. Needless to say the cruelties perpetrated in the raids for slaves are quite appalling. It was stated recently in the House of Commons by the Foreign Under-Secre-tary, Dr. Hugh Dalton, that the Liberian Government was represented on the League’s committee, whose, decisions were unanimous, and there was every reason to hope and. expect that, the general administrator, who was proceeding to Liberia, would be able to propose suitable action to end the unsatisfactory state of affairs, the measures to this effect at present in operation having reduced the traffic to comparatively small proportions. Unhappily that somewhat roseate tinge is not in accord with , the report of the commission, which, asserts the London Times, exposes a maladministration so cruel and so corrupt and an exploitation of native workers by their negro masters so callous and so shameless that the civilised world will not be satisfied until effective measures have been taken to substitute- a system of justice for a reign of brute force and to establish decent conditions of labour. It was on the prompting of the United States that the President of the Liberian Republic, Mr. King, authorised the inquiries, of the commission, and one of the first results has been. the resignation of Mr. King. As soon as the findings became known to the United States Government it embodied its views on the matter in such a stiff note to the Liberian President thqt he felt he had no course but to quit office. Liberia occupies a somewhat anomalous position, inasmuch as it is one of the two independent native States of Africa and is a member of the League of Nations, and its affairs are considered in Washington to be the. peculiar concern of the United States because the original republic was founded by African slaves repatriated from America, while its one big foreign enterprise is American. It is therefore evident that international diplomacy will have to be circumspect, as well as resolute, in order to ensure that national susceptibilities shall not hamper that action which the united voice of civilisation will demand. It is considered that of the many brutalities to which the natives of the hinterland are subjected’none seems to strike so much terror into them as the threat of shipment to Fernando Po. The most common method of obtaining slave labour appears to be for a detachment of the Liberian army, known as the frontier force, to appear before a village in the interior and order 200 or 300 “boys” to march to the coast for transportation to Fernando Po. The mere appearance of this force is enough to make the young men bolt at once into the bush. Thereupon the old men, and often women, are seized and held as hostages until the required number of workers has been completed. These workers are then, it appears, frequently flogged as a preliminary to the journey, and, according to authentic accounts, frequently beaten on the march itself. A nominal payment is apparently made to these impressed workmen in Fernando Po, but the amounts are trifling, so that those who survive the climate and return to Liberia are urgent in spreading detestation of the place among their brother tribesmen. But these docile blacks of the hinterland are frequently exploited much nearer their homes by the Liberians of the coast, who force them to construct houses and work on farms, while the Government itself freely impresses labour for public works, road-mak-ing having become a recognised method of accumulating fortunes for local members of the Liberian Administration. The attempt to establish a civilised negro State in West Africa has so far proved a failure, nor can it ever become a success unless the process of reorganisation is placed under the supervision of white men. It is the deliberate opinion of the commissioners, two of whom are themselves negroes, that the population of Liberia docs not contain adequate human material for providing capable substitutes in the higher places. Obviously no practical good can be, expected

unless first of all the central Government is strengthened and its authority extended to the hinterland. Particularly does it appear to be imperative that the mastery of the coast official over the blacks of the - interior should be thoroughly eliminated, for by all appearances he seems to be able to bully and fleece them to the satisfaction of every caprice of cruelty or greed, while supported by the frontier force, which is regarded as the chief curse of Liberia. The League of Nations should certainly justify its existence by effective action to make Liberia a really free country according to modern conceptions of civilisation.