ABOLISH SLAVERY

Waikato Independent, Volume XXX, Issue 2406, 28 October 1930, Page 2

ABOLISH SLAVERY

PLEA BY LADY SIMON. THOUSANDS STILL IN BONDAGE. “There arc between 4,000,000 and 6,000,000 slaves \calling to you for liberty, for the right to be treated as human beings; slavery must be abolished, and wc can do it,” was the stirring appeal made by Lady Simon, the wife of Sir John Simon, in an address at Toronto recently. The crowded meeting was held under the auspices of the distinguished visitors committee of the National Chapter of the Imperial Order, Daughters of the Empire. Lady Simon is a member of that order in India. She is the author of a book on “slavery,” and recently has devoted her talents to the carryingout of the anti-slavery convention of the League of Nations, which has now been signed by 27 countries. The London Foreign Office calls the slave markets of Abyssinia, where families arc sold and the members separated one from the other, “hell,” stated Lady Simon. There are 2,000,000 slaves in that country alone, some Abyssinian warriors having as many as 1500. Villages are raided, the inhabitants roped together, and dragged across the desert.

“There is one bright spot i\this sad story,” Lady Simon said, “the slaves know that if they can get to the Sudan they will be under the British flag and free. No slave is ever sent back.” As this is likely to lead to complications the only safe way is to arouse public opinion to a pitch where slavery will not be tolerated in Abyssinia or any other land.

Arabia has 700,000 slaves. The British ships on the Red Sea keep a constant watch .for slave vessels to effect captures and rescue passengers. China has 2,000,000 child slaves, chiefly girls. “Slavery so warps the character that ‘both master and slave lose all sense of decency and justice,” Lady Simon sand. “But China is beginning to open its eyes.” In 1928 North Burma, which is British, liberated 8000 slaves and the same year 213,000 were freed in Sierra Leone. Lady Simon deplored the fact that there was a widespread belief that slavery had conic to an end. Realisation that such is not so and that the most cruel systems of slavery still survive in many parts of the world must be impressed to arouse public opinion to the serious nature of the problem.