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Africa forwarded £817 for the Prince of Wales' Fund. The little native colony of Gambia made a collection in Bathurst, entirely at their own inception and from local French and Syrian residents, for the Prince of Wales' Fund, while six chiefs sent £40 with an expression of their anxiety to help the Government in "the distress which they knew from experience was entailed by war." The Chinese in Hong Kong contributed to a special subscription list over 63,000 dollars to the Prince of Wales' Fund, to which the comparatively small and poor Portuguese community also contributed. Other interesting cases of gifts from native traders are those of East Indian rice growers in British Guiana, who sent 2,000 lb. of rice of their own manufacture for the East Indian troops, and that of the Syrian traders doing business in Sierra Leone, who subscribed £114 towards Belgian relief, with an assurance that, though they were politically subjects of Turkey, all "their interests, sympathies, goodwill and affection were centred on Great Britain, the Empire to which they owe a deep debt of gratitude." The Syrian traders in Lagos also subscribed to war funds, while the GovernorGeneral of Nigeria was able to report "enthusiastic protestations of loyalty on the part of the 35,000 Mohammedans who form half the population of Lagos, on hearing of the outbreak of war with Turkey."

We add some specially interesting paragraphs from despatches relating to gifts from natives in various parts of the Empire.

The Governor of the Gold Coast in sending a first instalment of collections made on behalf of the Gold Coast Imperial War Fund, amounting to £3,744, states that the fund was initiated by a number of native gentlemen in Sekondi in September, after which two native barristers toured through the colony on behalf of the fund, and a second fund was started by the Aborigines' Rights Protection Society in Cape Coast. The subscriptions were entirely voluntary. Sir H. Clifford wrote:

"The natives of this Colony see in the present war a contest which is to decide whether, in West Africa, British or German methods and ideals of colonial administration are to prevail. It would be saying too much to assert that our rule is always or consistently popular. It is, however, certain that in the eyes of the native population it is vastly preferable to the form of government which the Germans set up in, e.g., Togoland; and in the present great conflict the natives of the Gold Coast and its dependencies are heart and soul with us, and are keenly anxious to see the British Empire emerge victorious from the struggle in which it is engaged."

From the East Africa Protectorate gifts in kind, consisting of bullocks, steers, sheep and goats, were presented by native tribes for the use of the troops. Numerous private gifts were contributed from the island of Jamaica besides the large sum of money collected for war funds, including consignments of fruit, woollen wraps for soldiers at the front, honey (from a beekeeper), and walking sticks, presumably for convalescents.

The people of the Bahamas subscribed £3,000 to the Prince of Wales' Fund, in addition to helping the Belgian Relief Fund. In notifying Mr. Harcourt of the contribution, the Governor of the Bahamas wrote :

"When the public meeting was held suggesting contributions from the Bahamas towards the fund being raised for the sufferers through the war, the most sanguine did not anticipate that the total contributions would exceed £1,000. The response has been truly magnificent. The majority of the inhabitants of these islands are poor. Many by contributing, I am sure, have not only denied themselves luxuries, but in many cases the necessaries of life, although to have refused their offerings would have given pain. There have been instances of seamstresses and market women earning a few shillings a week who insisted on giving either three shillings or two shillings. There have been other instances of people who had buried gold which they would not have unearthed except in dire need, but in order to be one of the subscribers to the war fund they have dug up their hidden treasure. This has been the case in the out-islands, and accounts for many of the contributions of £1 os. 6d., which is the exchange of the American 5-dollar gold piece."

Sir Frederick Lugard, Governor-General of Nigeria, wrote to the Secretary of State a summary of "innumerable expressions of loyalty which he had received from the native chiefs and people of Nigeria, and in informing him of their spontaneous contributions to war funds, sent translations of six letters from the contributing Emirs and native chiefs of the Northern Provinces.

The following is a translation of a letter addressed by the Chief Sarkin Kano, Abbas, "to the mighty representative of the King of the English, the great white man, the Governor

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Greeting and peace, friendship and respect for you who are in the midst of trouble and war with great weight of responsibility of office upon you. You know that I thank you and praise you because you take care of us, you care for our people that no trouble befall us or any disaster overtake us. Because we hear you send many men to guide (? guard) the boundaries of the land in the region of the Cameroons, that they may not allow the Germans to come into the land without our knowledge, to come and despoil us and take us unawares. We thank you for this work which you have done. We praise you for your forethought which has raised us up. Moreover, you know that I know that this is true that you spend money in plenty because of the war. Wherefore, I wish, if you agree, to help you with a gift of money from the Native Treasuries, £6,542.

This is the money with which we are prepared to help you-even as you have helped us.

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The natives of Tanna and Aniwa islands in the New Hebrides group subscribed £73 for relief; the letter from Tanna accompanying their gift ran as follows:

Recognizing that much good has come to them in past years from subjects of His Majesty, the natives of Tanna desire to say that they are

not unmindful of what has been done for them and for their fellows in the New Hebrides by men and women from various parts of His Majesty's great Empire.

"They cease not to pray that victory, clear and complete, may rest with the forces of His Majesty and their Allies, and, further,

"The people of this small island humbly request that His Gracious Majesty King George V. will be pleased to receive an expression of practical sympathy from them in the accompanying contribution, most willingly and heartily given, for the relief, in some small measure, of suffering amongst those of His Majesty's subjects whose husbands and fathers have given their lives for King and country in this great war."

The whole Book bears witness to the truth of the statement of the Secretary of State for the Colonies that "from the Dominions, the Crown colonies and the protectorates, men of every creed and colour and race had overwhelmed us with men, munitions, and money." He characterized it as "a glorious chapter in our Imperial history," and the temper of which this is the manifestation is, as Sir Harry Johnston recently reminded us, in great measure due to the work and the beliefs which underlie the work of our Society.

Mative Medical Disabilities in West Africa.

A RECENT editorial in The Gold Coast Leader states that the native doctors in Government service on the West Coast number only seven, i.e. four for the whole of Nigeria and three in Sierra Leone. On the Gold Coast no native doctor is engaged in the Public Medical service, in spite of the influence of Sir Hugh Clifford, the Governor, who is in favour of their employment and of the fact that "a new era " was expected this year in this respect. In the Gambia no native doctor is permanently employed, although "as a concession to local opinion in the colony," a resident native doctor is temporarily engaged as a Government medical officer.

It is pointed out that the number in Nigeria is the same as was employed in the old colony of Lagos long before it was merged into the greater Nigeria, "the second greatest tropical dependency of the British Crown.”

We referred in our last issue to the discussion on this subject in the Legislative Council of Sierra Leone, where we are told the local papers and natives throughout the colony have clamoured in vain for an increase, but since the war the principal Medical Officer has engaged two native doctors temporarily.

On the other hand it is reported that the rates of salary of the white West African Medical Staff and the number of senior appointments are to be raised. It is no wonder that when the demand for adequate recognition of

native medical men has for so long been persistently ignored there should be considerable discontent at the present state of things among people of colour.

The African World recently published an editorial note on the general question which brought them a large number of letters from Englishmen, as to which they write:

"The communications are unanimous in condemning the rule which denies the right of the properly trained West African doctor, however highly qualified by study at a British medical school and hospital, and maybe at a university as well, employment in his own country on the same terms as are offered to whites. Some of the correspondents say frankly that they would not welcome coloured doctors in certain positions here, but that it is a negation of every principle of what is right and proper, to say nothing of the traditions of British administration, to keep the inhabitants of a land from receiving equality of treatment with strangers. Several writers of letters point out that a few months ago, at the election of a medical officer for the London Borough of Camberwell, a white doctor was selected over a black possessing a higher degree, on the ground that women would have prejudice against being attended to by one of that race. If deference is paid to such an objection and the African is penalized by it, the very least amount of justice is to give him fair-play among his own people."

M. Vandervelde on the Congo Question.

M. EMILE VANDERVELDE, the well-known leader of the Socialist party in Belgium, who since the war has been appointed by the Belgian Government. a Minister of State, was entertained by the African Society at a dinner on March 8 last. M. Vandervelde will be remembered as a determined and strenuous opponent of the Leopoldian régime in the Congo, and the speech which he delivered on this occasion on Belgian and British interests in Africa is full of interest. We quote a translation of some of the more striking passages. After a reference to the present position of Belgium, he turned to Africa and made some remarks on his distrust of colonial expansion for Belgium as a dangerous and costly policy, which have been adversely criticized in several quarters. But whatever advantages might, in his opinion, accrue to Belgium from the loss of the Congo (in the improbable event of a German victory), M. Vandervelde felt no doubt. that its annexation by Germany would be a great evil for the natives of that country, for he was convinced that" of all the peoples who bear rule in Africa, the Germans are those who treat the natives worst."

"I count it an honour," M. Vandervelde said, "that I was for ten years the faithful ally of those, who in England denounced the abuses and crimes of the Leopoldian régime. . . . At that time the Congo, though de facto a Belgian colony, was de jure a foreign country. Leopold II was in Africa an absolute monarch and able to say, with more justice than Louis XIV,

'L'Etat c'est moi.' On the pretext of appropriating vacant lands the State seized all the forests of the Congo in spite of the rights of user which the native communities exercised there. As master of the soil the State declared itself proprietor of the products of the soil, and, as under these conditions the natives refused to work for an absurdly small salary, they were compelled to work, and very often this compulsion was sanctioned by terrorizing means. It was in the hope of putting an end to this régime and substituting for the absolutism of Leopold the Second the control of the Belgian Parliament, that contrary to the opinion of the whole of my party, I maintained that annexation was inevitable. Annexation was brought about, and at the end of three years reform has been accomplished. Natives henceforth have a right to the products of the soil; forced labour is abolished; monopolies are suppressed; liberty of trade, full and complete, exists throughout the length and breadth of the Congo. . . . Perhaps in the coming years Belgium which has undergone such a severe test will once more need the help of England to develop the improvement of her vast Colonial domain. . . . For myself, I express the hope that our community of interests may turn to the advantage of the Native populations, and that in Africa as well as in Europe, the relations between our two countries may become ever more intimate and more confidential. The past no longer separates us the present has brought us together--the future will find us united, by community of interests it is true, but also by community of sentiment. . . . Twice in ten years England has rendered inestimable services to Belgium. In Africa she has made us understand, or helped us to make it understood, that we could not accept the inheritance of King Leopold except with the determination of putting an end to abuses, whose continuance would have been a dishonour to the country. In Europe at the moment of supreme trials, England has, by her intervention, given us the hope, or I may say rather, the certainty of ultimate victory. . I greet the future with the hope that soon in Africa as well as in Europe, there will be no longer any peoples oppressed and exploited, but only free peoples working together for civilization and humanity."

An African Club.

To the Directors of Messrs. Elder, Dempster & Co., Ltd., the Liverpool Shipowners, is due the honour of founding the first Social Club for Africans. temporarily resident in England. Primarily, the Club is for the use of West African natives employed on the ships of the Elder Dempster Lines, and which, on their journeys to and from the West Coast periodically spend some weeks in the Liverpool docks. Hitherto little has been done to find healthy recreation for the "boys" from the West Coast, but this Club will now become more and more a rallying point and elevating centre for Africans visiting Liverpool.

At present, the enterprise is only in an initial stage, but as recently pointed out to Mr. Harris, the Company is quite ready to develop the Institute according to requirements. The Club is situated at the corner of Upper Stanhope Street (seven minutes' walk from the South Dock), from

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