SLAVERY IN LIBERIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 March 1932, Page 6

SLAVERY IN LIBERIA.

The League of Nations decided last January to come to gripe with slavery “in all its forms” throughout the world. A commission of seven persons, with Lord Lugard as a British representative, is to advise the League by next September what further steps may be possible to expedite the work of abolishing slavery and setting the slaves free. Next year will see the centenary of the historic decision of Great Britain in 1833 to abolish slavery throughout the. British Dominions. The new commission will have at its disposal a mass of information collated by independent observers, which makes it only too clear that slavery, “that crime against the whole human race” as a British Foreign Minister called it, has by no means completely disappeared, One of the clearest instances is in regard to Liberia, the African State founded as a refuge for freed slaves from the United States. Such a country should have been the last in which slavery should be suspected. But the evidence to the contrary is overwhelming. Forced labour and other forms of cruelty and oppression have been proven to the hilt by a special commission set up by the League. The commission was presided over by the Polish Foreign Minister (M. Zaleski); and while'it emphasised Liberia’s need of League assistance in bringing about financial and economic reform, it pointed out that the removal of injustice to the aboriginal natives of Liberia must precede any efforts made by the League for the country’s asistance. According to recent reports there is no sign of the Liberian Government’s taking this advice to heart. Its replies to British, French and American representations have not been satisfactory, and Britain and the United States have decided to withhold diplomatic relationships with the Liberian Republic until it gives evidence of its intention to stop the “grave and cruel administration” of native affairs. As evidence that members of the League are in earnest in the ‘anti-slavery campaign the decision in regard to Liberia is likely to have wide effect upon other African States. They are all in process of development and most of them need outside financial assistance for that purpose. The League can therefore attack the problem with a double weapon. It can appeal to material as well as to moral influences, and Great Britain has made it clear to Liberia that there will be no hesitancy in doing so.