Page images
PDF
EPUB

Anti-Slavery Reporter and Aborigines' Friend.

APRIL, 1915.

[The Editor, whilst grateful to all correspondents who may be kind enough to furnish him with information, desires to state that he is not responsible for the views stated by them, nor for questions which may be inserted from other journals. The object of the journal is to spread information, and articles are necessarily quoted which may contain views or statements for which their authors can alone be held responsible.]

to Land in

Quarterly Motes.

WE referred in our last issue to the important mission Native Rights undertaken by Mr. and Mrs. Harris in South Africa, in Rhodesia. connexion with this question, and to the difficulties which they had met with in the prosecution of their inquiries in Rhodesia. These obstacles to the fulfilment of their mission did not diminish, but we are glad to state that after negotiations had taken place in this country our solicitors received a reply from the Colonial Office to their representations, in which Mr. Harcourt stated that the British South Africa Company, which is one of the parties in the case before the Privy Council, was now willing to waive its objection to the presentation of the native case without authority from resident natives, and that the production of powers of attorney from them would not now be insisted upon. As one of the primary objects of Mr. Harris's journey to Rhodesia was to obtain these powers, a cable was sent to him to return. This Mr. Harris arranged to do, but prolonged his stay until he had accomplished the other work which he had in hand, collecting much valuable evidence bearing on the case, and also in connexion with general native questions of interest to the Society. He reached home early in March.

THE Colonial Office have now made it clear that they The Trouble regard a public inquiry into the circumstances of the in Abeokuta. disturbance in Abeokuta last August as unnecessary, in view of the facts which were disclosed at the trial before the Supreme Court of Nigeria of three natives accused of complicity in the riot. It is maintained that this evidence established the existence of a dangerous conspiracy against Mr. Edun, the Secretary of the Egba Government, and the fact of the threatening attitude of the Ijemo people. We are informed from an independent source that the people were prepared for fight, having been stirred up by two of the accused to a "wild indignation" against the Alake and his Secretary, Mr. Edun, and that ill-will had long

existed between one of the prisoners and the latter. The charges against Mr. Edun appear to be vague and unreasonable.

It is much to be regretted that a full public inquiry was not granted in the first instance, as this would have satisfied the native people that the Government was prepared to hear both sides, and have diminished the general dissatisfaction which is felt in Lagos at what is thought to be the high-handed action of the authorities. We cannot, however, in view of the evidence mentioned, regard the action of the troops as unprovoked, or the Alake's call for troops unjustified, though the loss of life is deplorable. We note that of the casualties, which are stated to have been twenty-eight killed and nine wounded, only two-one killed and one wounded-were women, and it cannot therefore be said that women and children suffered severely in the émeute.

As regards the repeal of the Egba Treaty of 1893, it does not seem that its terms had technically been broken; the Government therefore probably took advantage of the Alake's position to suggest the suppression of the Treaty and so bring Egbaland under the Nigeria Protectorate. Now that this has been done, we must hope that the administration will be exercised with judgment and tact so as to respect as far as possible the Egbas' sense of independence; the working of the new arrangement should be carefully watched.

West African WE highly appreciate the cordial tone of a recent Testimony to editorial in the Sierra Leone Weekly News, referring the Society. to our Society and its aims :

"We know what the members of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society are. They are all of them philanthropists; people who identify themselves in sympathy with the weaker races of mankind, and are ready to be out for war against all reported and authenticated cases of grievous cruelty and injustice anywhere.

'. . . In the journal of the Anti-Slavery Society you see the hearts of men yearning with sympathy over down-trodden peoples, and you see a whole company rushing forward to give battle to the oppressors. At the present moment, when the black man is troubled, when he is afraid, his hand is stretched forth instinctively to his Anti-Slavery friends."

Sir H. H.
Johnston

SIR HARRY JOHNSTON, in the course of a remarkable lecture to the Royal Geographical Society on February 24 on the A.P.S. on the subject of "Africa after the War," referred to the Society's work in the following terms of high commen

dation :

"If we were a logical people, sufficiently well read in history and the lessons of history, each one of us who could afford the modest subscription of a few shillings would be a member of the Aborigines Protection Society,

the most purely philanthropic organization which exists in our land at the present day. We see the effect of the eighty years' work of this Society in the condition of the British Empire in Africa and Asia since the German declaration of war."

French WE referred in these Notes some months ago to the Recognition of significance of the election of a pure-blooded West African Coloured Men. native to a place in the French Senate. The following remarks from a Gold Coast newspaper, commenting on the superiority of the French native soldiers to those under Great Britain, are worthy of attention:

Why should French Senegalese soldiers surpass our soldiers in qualities of gallantry and initiative? The cause may be traced to the difference in the method of training and government of African races by the British and the French people. The French African native subject is trained to love France and to regard her as a mother solicitous of his interests and ready and willing to bestow honour on him, even as she bestows on her white sons, if he prove himself worthy. The British only tolerate their subject races and appear to make it their concern constantly and in season and out of season to make them feel that their lot and portion is that of servants and menials in the good household of the Great White Mother of the British Empire."

An African
Hostel.

WE are glad to learn that Messrs. Elder, Dempster & Co., the well-known Liverpool shippers, have generously undertaken the responsibility of providing a Club in Liverpool for Africans temporarily resident in that city. Owing to the war, the Joint Committee of the African Society, with that of our own, has been unable to make any further progress for the establishment of such an institution in London.

The Return of Mr. and Mrs. Harris from South

Africa.

AT the meeting of the March Committee the President extended a warm welcome to our Organizing Secretaries on their return from South Africa. Mrs. Harris had preceded her husband by some three weeks in order to fulfil certain lecture engagements in different parts of the country. Mr. Harris arrived the day before the meeting of the General Committee.

For the present we are precluded from disclosing in detail the main object of this important undertaking, beyond saying that the results cannot fail to be of far-reaching consequences to the natives in every part of Britain's dominions, and that the mission has been carried out to the entire satis faction of those best able to judge.

The Committee heard with great satisfaction that besides accomplishing the specific work with which they had been entrusted, Mr. and Mrs. Harris had been able to carry out an investigation into native conditions in the Union territories, and Mrs. Harris was able also to visit Swaziland.

It was perhaps only natural that Johannesburg, with its teeming population of native labourers, should provide exceptional opportunities. Our Organizing Secretaries were invited to inspect the compounds, mines, hospitals, kitchens and sleeping quarters of the labourers, whilst reports and statistics were willingly placed at their disposal. We are confident that members of the Society will share with our Committee the satisfaction they feel at the solid growth of a public opinion in favour of reforming the condition of the native labourers in the mines. The visit of Mr. Harris was utilized to assist in drawing these elements together into a definite organization. During the war this body will work privately, but after the close of the present conflict the new committee will be publicly launched. The personnel includes some of the most eminent public men in the Transvaal, and not a few of those whose daily task brings them into continuous personal contact with the natives. The work of organizing this movement has been entrusted to Dr. Hertslet, who has devoted many years to the welfare of the natives of South Africa.

In Natal Mr. Maurice Evans, C.M.G., whose authoritative writings. upon native questions are well known, was responsible for a meeting in Durban to discuss the Society's work and the steps which could be taken to bring the Home Committee into a more definite co-operation with the Natal Native Affairs Reform Association. This gathering was organized by the energetic Honorary Secretary, Mr. Berry, and was well attended.

The following is an extract from the report in the Natal Times and Mercury:

The meeting then took the form of a conference, and the questions of forced labour, the effects of isibalo in Natal, labour conditions generally, the Native Land Act, and the policy of separation and segregation, were discussed.

The Chairman then called attention to the speeches lately delivered by the Archbishop of Capetown and the Bishop of Pretoria, and expressed himself as extremely pleased that they took such a broad view of the position, and, instead of dealing with phases of the question, went down to fundamentals. Mr. Evans was of opinion that all those who desired better race relations and a more hopeful social future in South Africa should concentrate on :

(1) Framing some method by which native opinion could be expressed ; (2) Establishing some council or other body in which that opinion should be considered and co-ordinated, and brought to the notice of Government;

« PreviousContinue »