voluntary. Recruiting by professional agents should therefore be abolished, and District Officers should be instructed to encourage natives to go out to work, labour camps properly managed by Europeans being established at suitable centres, to which employers would resort for labour. The Government would not be the recruiter of labour, but the channel of communication between employers and employed, and the native labourers would not be drafted out to work irrespective of their own wishes as to work, locality or employer. All labour obtained at the Camps should be registered.

ADMINISTRATION.

The present form of native administration shows many defects, as there is a lack of uniformity of policy among officials, some persuading natives to go out to work, others discouraging them from it. In the former case the chiefs too often employ compulsion in order to secure the desired supply. Instructions to officers should be so framed as to ensure continuity of policy. Among other recommendations, it is proposed that the duties of officers in native areas should be confined to native administration, and to jurisdiction over natives.

A Chief Native Commissioner should be appointed with an adequate staff, in order by constant travelling to keep in touch with local conditions, also Resident Magistrates, on the lines of the Union of South Africa.

TRANSPORT OF NATIVES.

It was recommended that labour routes should be improved from the point of view of hygiene; overcrowding of labour gangs in trains should be stopped, as also the locking in of these natives to third class coaches or even goods vans, where they are subjected to conditions of heat and cramped position which" must be well nigh intolerable," while the sanitary conditions. are "unspeakable." Generally, better accommodation should be provided.

INDENTURED LABOUR.

The majority of the witnesses were against imported indentured labour. The Commission, however, by a majority recommended that if indentured labour, although generally objected to, proved necessary for large works on the coast, it should be imported on condition of repatriation being insisted on, and legislation being introduced for each separate project. A minority of the Commission were in favour of indentured labour being introduced without restriction, under conditions approved by Government.

NATIVE RESERVES AND SQUATTING.

The Commission pronounced in favour of squatting being encouraged in every possible way, on certain specified conditions. They recommended the demarcation of undemarcated Reserves with a view to reserving sufficient

land for the present population only, and the prevention of encroachments on to Crown or alienated lands, the revision of the boundaries of demarcated reserves on this principle, and the appointment of a Commission for such demarcation and revision. The Commission expressed the opinion that individualism was desirable and sure to come, but did not advocate " undue pressure to hasten the issue." In regard to future individual tenure of land by natives, the main recommendations of the South African Native Affairs Commission of 1903-5 were adopted. Specially demarcated locations should be set aside for de-tribalized natives who should pay rent for their holdings. The Commission advocated the opening up of Reserves by permitting free ingress and egress, improving means of communication, and stimulating trade with the natives.

DIET AND HOUSING, ETC.

The Commission was of opinion that both these matters were insufficiently attended to, and required legislation providing for the enforcement of proper conditions.

Active ill-treatment by employers was not considered by the Commission to be by any means common, but wherever it does occur it acts as a deterrent to labour." One employer who treats his natives ill is said to give a bad name to a whole district; disputes often result from language difficulties.

ΤΑΧΑΤΙΟΝ.

The Commission was unanimous in holding taxation as a means of increasing the labour supply to be unjustifiable; but a majority recommended increased taxation, believing that the natives, owing to their wealth, are well able to pay higher taxes on property, which should be based on the number of wives; a minority of the Commissioners, considering that the incidence of the tax was not a matter for them to discuss, dissociated themselves from this recommendation, and opposed the principle of a progressive tax on the property of one section only of the native community.

Other recommendations refer to the restriction of the consumption of native liquor, the fostering of technical and agricultural education, while one paragraph, which we are very glad to note, recommends the abolition of free labour on roads and public works under the Ordinances of 1910 and 1912.

"The Commission is of opinion that this form of forced labour is wasteful, that work without pay is liable to create a distaste for work altogether, and that the results are of little general practical value. It is therefore recommended that roads and other public works in Reserves should be constructed by labour paid at the market rate under the competent supervision of a Technical Department."

We have received from one of the Society's corresponding members in East Africa a letter emphasizing the value of the report, which in his opinion

is a most interesting and valuable production, upon which he hopes the Government will act. He believes that the adoption of the recommendations of the Commission will bring about a beginning of better things both for the native and the colonist. Another correspondent strongly criticizes. the idea of cutting down the size of the native reserves; many of them, he says, are hardly large enough as it is, and there is a tendency to deprive the natives of their land and sell it to Europeans in order to induce the native to become a labourer or a tenant. The native should not be forced to come out of his reserves to work for Europeans, especially as the rate of pay is only four or five rupees a month. Little by little, our correspondent writes, the natives are being allowed to become landless and detribalized. Rather they should be encouraged to work in their own reserves; they are not idle, for nearly all the exports from East Africa are native grown.

This seems to be borne out by some of the witnesses. One of them points out as a reason for not reducing the reserves that the Government must look forward to the time when the present reserves would not be large enough for the increasing population. Another witness who opposes interference with the reserves stated that various tribes had very definite rights to certain areas, while the Provincial Commissioner for Nyanza province stated that he considered such a proposal a highly immoral one, which would cause a tremendous amount of discontent. The evidence of the District Commissioner at Nairobi was of similar purport. A large number of the witnesses, however, spoke in favour of cutting down the reserves on the ground that the natives would then have to go out and work for the settlers. Many of the witnesses, official and unofficial, spoke of the present system as being practically one of forced labour.

German Society for the Protection of Matives. THE German Congo League at its Committee of December 5 resolved upon. its dissolution, in the face of the better conditions prevailing in the Congo, In its place is to be founded a German Society for the protection of natives, which regards as its sphere the kindred work of the protection and the uplifting of all undeveloped races, and, before all, the native peoples in German Protectorates. These aims should be followed up by regular reports in the organ of the Society (Der Koloniale Rundschau) upon the conditions of life and the progress of the natives, and upon the dangers which threaten their better condition and their development, through the influence of public opinion, through the daily press being in favour of an upright native policy, and by the publication of pamphlets, also by paving the way for a good understanding of and an adjustment of interests between the ruling white race and the natives.

The Presidency of the new Society is undertaken by Herr Chr. von Bornhaupt, Berlin, and the Vice-Chairmanship by the Director of Missions, A. W. Schreiber, Bremen. Consul A. D. Ernst Vohsen, Berlin, is Treasurer, and Professor D. Westermann, Berlin, Secretary.

The Committee of our Society has communicated its good wishes to the newly constituted body in Berlin, and has received a reply expressing their satisfaction at the prospect of co-operation with the British Society, it being one of their aims to seek connexion with similar bodies in other countries.

The Deutsche Kolonialzeitung, commenting in a recent number on the formation of the new Society, writes:

"The total number of our coloured subjects amounts to twelve millions.

"To remove the injuries which the excrescences of modern civilization have inflicted on these primitive peoples, of weak resistance, both bodily and mentally, and to combat diseases which rage in their midst, is the aim of the Society. Though the natives doubtless have much for which to thank European civilization, yet a strong plea presents itself for the necessity of protecting and promoting the welfare of coloured peoples."

Mational Free Church Council.

RESOLUTION AS TO NATIVE RACES.

AT the recent meetings of the Free Church Council held at Norwich, a strong resolution dealing with native race questions was formally moved by the President, the Rev. H. Luke Wiseman, and seconded by the Rev. J. H. Harris, Organizing Secretary of our Society. The resolution was in the following terms :

"That this Congress of the National Federation of Free Churches desires to place on record its appreciation of the measures recently adopted by His Majesty's Government for the protection of native races from cruelty and oppression.

"This Congress expresses its profound admiration and appreciation of the vigorous instructions issued by Sir Edward Grey to His Majesty's Consuls throughout the world, in which they are called upon to report the existence of labour conditions amounting to virtual slavery or entailing the ill-treatment of coloured labourers.'

"This Congress welcomes the intimation that His Majesty's Government has under consideration the consolidation and amendment of the laws of slave-owning and slave-trading in such a manner as to make them applicable to modern conditions, and greatly hopes that time may be provided for the passage of the proposed legislation.

This Congress also welcomes the appointment of a high official with four consular assistants to watch native labour conditions in West Africa, and trusts that this step taken by His Majesty's Government will secure an early emancipation of the thousands of slaves in Portuguese West Africa.

"Finally, this Congress, being of the opinion that the expenditure involved in taking these measures will be regarded by the nation as a legitimate national charge, calls upon the Free Churches to give every support to His Majesty's Government in its determination to maintain the tradition of Great Britain as the defender of the weaker races of the world."

Mr. Harris, in seconding the resolution, said that native races throughout the world owed to Sir Edward Grey a deep debt of gratitude for the efforts made by him during recent months to improve their conditions of labour in tropical regions. With characteristic foresight Britain's Foreign Secretary had been quietly laying foundations both of policy and administration which, supported by an alert public opinion, could not fail to lift the heavy burden of injustice and cruelty which is to-day the unhappy lot of native labourers in the tropical regions of the African Continent, South and Central America, and the islands of the sea.

Referring to the arrest of Mr. Bowskill, Mr. Harris said that a year ago British public opinion was deeply stirred at the murder by the Portuguese of Mr. Douglas, a British missionary in East Africa; now Mr. Bowskill, another British missionary, is under arrest. The offence of both these brave men is identical, namely, that by their devotion and honesty they had earned the respect and trust of the oppressed Africans. When the distracted natives of San Salvador found their women being violated, their villages looted, their young men carried as slaves to the sugar and cocoa plantations, they turned in their distress to the British missionaries, and this is in the eyes of Republican Portugal a crime.

We have pledged ourselves to secure a thorough investigation into the cause of Mr. Bowskill's arrest and to demand the liberation of the slaves in Portuguese West Africa. To those who know anything of Portuguese administration this is a formidable task, but it is one in which we have a right to claim the co-operation of the whole Christian Church, and to suggest. that once again the Free Churches should give a vigorous lead to the country.

Death of Sir W. Lee-Warner.

By the death on January 18 of Sir William Lee-Warner, at the age of sixtyseven, the Committee has lost a member who was keenly interested in the fight against slavery, and had been a supporter of the Society for some years, though he only joined the Committee about a year ago. Sir William, who retired from the Council of India in November, 1912, had a