Slavery under the Flag

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 15, 13 April 1905, Page 1

Slavery under the Flag

It was Cowper's boast tha<t slaves couM not breathe under the flag of Britain. 'If their lungs,' said he, ' recefr:ie our air, that moment they are free.' But yejlow serfdom or slavery in South Africa and 'black slavery, in Western Aiustralia give the lie to the boast so far as gome, at least, of the back-blocks of the Empire are concerned. And now Mr. T. E. Riddle, in the I>i*nekrin ' Outlook,' tells a tale of Franco-Britisih slavery in tthe New Hebrides that recalls in a way the evil diays of ' blackbirdrng ' among the Pacific Islands for recruits for tlhe Queensland sugar plantations. The 'slim' recruiter still creeps with his cutter among the lagoons of those isles of reef and palm. He works his wiles upon the copper-skinned natives in the interests of the

Hebridean planters, and for ways that are dark and tricka tihat are vain he, like the Heathcm Chinee, is peculiar. The too trustful native is, it appears, lured aboard the recruiting Cutter by iridescent promises whioh>— lijke tibose of Molly Asthore— ' are meant but to deceive.,' He then indents himself as a serf or glaive by signing a ■' contract,' in a language whic;h he % does not understand. And thereafter (according to Mr. Riddle) his 'portion is hard grind, small pay, meagre fare, awl, im imany cases, generous outward applications of rawhide, Here are slome instances of what (according to the ' Outtaoik ' writer) happens to the c^usky slave in the New Hebirilles : • On the steamer the other day I 6|aw eight] or ten boys who were being taken back to their islands from two Britishers in a southern island. Tihe boys had been three years with their masters. One of the officers on flic steamer pointed them out to me. At no place in the islands have I seen a group of more starved,, broken-looking men. The officer said : " Look at tthose men. That's nothing ! If you had seen them when they came aboard a week ago. They snapped at the moat I ga^c them as .if they had not seen a meal tor a month. I asked one of them : ' You got him plenty m|oney ? ' ' No,' he said, 'me no giot 'mv. Something he stop along box.' " The officer said : "I looked— half full ! And they expect to get labor when they starve boys like that ' " Another great evul of our legalised Franco-British slavery system is that a great mainy of those who engage a boy for three years look on him as their own personal property. They feed hirti just as they like— (of ten on the mos»t meagic pittance of rice or of ban an/as. If he breaks any of the rules they have laid down, Uiey tie him un, and often tihfrasfh him miosit brutally. The days of Unile Tom and Legree are far from finished on Epi. Willie is a boy about 18 years old. He signed on with an Epi Frenchman. After working about three years he got no wages, biut received a musket, for which he was to work three years miore. Shortly after this he ana a woman ran away. Tfaey were cawght and brought back. The Fronohmlign tied their hands together o-\er a bar abo\c their heads, sio that they can Id ncitilior sit nor lie. and in that position they wore left, night and day, for a whole week. Besides this, ins master took away the musket,, and told him that he had to work three \eais extra for running away, in addition to the three jeais alreaJdy i imposed for the musket. Willie ran away again, and is now working for an Englishman, rind lately the Frenchman has written demanding £20 as compensation for the six years of work tihat Willie wap due him ' ' In 1833 the Imperial Parliament ga\e freedom to all slaves throughout t&e British colonies, at a cost of £20,000,0001. The outworks of the Empire won.*ld be benefited just now by a little of the spirit of Brougham and Derby.