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Bishop Johnson, Corresponding Member of our Society and President of the Nigeria Auxiliary, returned to Lagos last year after two years' absence in Sierra Leone for health. In a recent letter the Bishop of Sierra Leone wrote: One could wish that the two years' rest had done him more good. The mind is still vigorous, and he has not been idle here; but the strain of fifty years of ministerial work has told on him, and he looks frail and his life is an inspiration to our younger men.”

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SIERRA LEONE.

The Sierra Leone Weekly News in its report of the anniversary meetings of the local auxiliary of our Society, which took the form of a Thanksgiving Service on Sunday, September 5, and a public meeting on the following day, makes the following appreciative reference to the Society's work:

"We are sorry that the name of the Anti-Slavery Society has not in the past been kept by the leaders of the local Anti-Slavery Auxiliary before the people of Sierra Leone, as it eminently deserves to be. Speaking frankly, we consider the Anti-Slavery Society-the members of it— to be of far more service to us as a people than some modern Missionaries of the Cross.

'What does the Society stand for? We are not sure that we are able to answer this question as well as it ought to be answered. But the following will do:-The Anti-Slavery Society in England stands for the recognition of the rights of weaker and backward races by ruling races who are also powerful. As we once before wrote in this Journal, the Members of the Anti-Slavery Society 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.

"If our people would prove the above statement for themselves let them, from now, become subscribers to the Anti-Slavery Reporter and Aborigines' Friend, and read the doings of this Society, which we feel certain is kept in the very seat and centre of the British Empire by a Power greater than that of man.

"There are hundreds of people in this Colony who are enjoying great benefits secured to them by the Society who, nevertheless, are not aware of the existence of the Society. To be grateful to a benefactor we must first know of the existence of such a person.

"We would be pleased to see the local Anti-Slavery Society constituting itself into an educative body—a body that would be out to tell the people all the good things that may be known of the Parent Society, and that would impress upon all the necessity of contributing liberally to her funds."

Repression of Slavery in the Sudan.

AN interesting résumé of the work of the Slave Trade Department in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan was recently published in Near East, which stated that this Department of the Sudan Government is still considered important. in spite of the material change in the conditions which the energy and vigilance of the Government has brought about since it was first established. The article refers to the flagrant evils of slave dealing a few years ago, as well as to the improvement effected by the regular active patrolling of the Suakin district and elsewhere to prevent the smuggling of slaves and kidnapped children, measures which have been duly recorded in the Official Annual reports.

"Of late months," the correspondent writes, "there have been rather more cases of slavery reported to the authorities, doubtless due to the recent scarcity of grain; but the undiminished vigilance of the Government renders anything like a return to the bad old conditions absolutely impossible. From time to time cases of kidnapping come to light; especially in the neighbourhood of Suakin. Instances of abduction of the most approved romantic type are also still occasionally discovered, and promptly punished. Latterly there have been established a number of additional military and police posts charged with the supervision of this kind of illegal practice. A new post of eleven non-commissioned officers and men, under a superintendent, has been formed at Wadob, in the Gemelab country.

"As always, the Sudan Government is meeting with little but obstruction and annoyance from the Abyssinian authorities in its efforts. The disturbed state of the Abyssinian border and increased control of the chiefs living on the Sudan side of the frontier have somewhat diminished the traffic in slaves; but it is always possible to find men who are willing to go to Abyssinia to fetch both slaves and rifles. The authorities, however, are fully alive to what is going on at this side, as well as among the Fellata and other pilgrims, who are much inclined to do a little quiet dealing in slaves when they think that the eye of authority is turned the other way.

Sometimes it is necessary to teach these gentry a sharp lesson, such as that administered to the Nubas, who actually attacked a detachment of thirty-five non-commissioned officers and men who had been sent to Jebel Kasha at the beginning of July of last year to form a post which is still maintained there. As a rule, however, it is not found necessary to keep detachments of this character for more than a few months at a time at any given place. Their temporary presence seems to have a good moral effect. The small detachment of twenty-six non-commissioned officers and men, for instance, who were sent, mounted on mules, to the Sebat Valley (in the Upper Nile Province) late in November of 1913, returned to El Obeid at the end of the month of May following; while the post of eleven men, mounted on camels, sent to Nahud at the beginning of last year, were brought back to headquarters in the following July. In both of these cases the results attained were considered to be perfectly satis factory."

90

HOOVER WAR
COLLECTION

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER AND ABORIGINES' FRIEND.

Disturbances in Ceylon

A STATEMENT regarding the riots which took place in Ceylon in the early part of last summer, and the severe measures taken by the Government in consequence, has been laid before the Society by Mr. E. W. Perera, a Sinhalese barrister who is in this country in order to approach the Secretary of State for the Colonies on behalf of his countrymen. Martial law was proclaimed, many prominent citizens were arrested and imprisoned, and a large number of executions took place.

A letter was addressed in September on behalf of the Society to the Colonial Office asking that an inquiry should be instituted and that no further executions should be permitted without authority from the Home Government. In reply, the Colonial Office stated that Mr. Perera's memorandum could not be accepted as a basis for inquiry, but that it should be sent to the Governor of Ceylon for his report. Martial law had been withdrawn on August 30, and despatches from the Governor giving an account of the riots would be laid before Parliament in due course. The Society then asked that they might be permitted to see a copy of the Governor's report when received.

Meanwhile the Hon. P. Ramanathan, K.C., C.M.G., Ceylonese member of the Legislative Council and formerly Attorney-General, has arrived in England, and it is proposed to convene an informal meeting to hear a statement from him with a view to taking such further action in the matter as may seem desirable.

The following extracts from a letter published in the Ceylon Times from the Hon. H. Creasy, a well-known member of the Legislative Council, give a clear statement of his position in this matter :—

"I take no more interest in the Sinhalese than I do in any other of the numerous races which dwell in this small island. I know there is a strong feeling of animosity prompted by religious sentiment and commercial rivalry between a very large number of Moors and Sinhalese. To single out the Sinhalese, innocent and guilty, as the persons to bear the whole weight of the tax will be to create a feeling of injustice among the Sinhalese and to enhance and increase the existing animosity between the Sinhalese and the Moors. To divide the damages among the whole community would have no such effect. . . . I do not minimize the wrongs done to the Moors. I know them well, probably better than you do, and have not the smallest sympathy with any one person or any class of persons who committed those wrongs or who sympathized with or in any way protected the wrongdoers. It is all utterly bad and no punishment can be too severe to vindicate the rights of the whole community. . . . I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that a very large number of perfectly innocent people have been imprisoned and are still in prison, and many even sentenced to death, in the course of the measures adopted to bring the guilty to justice and to restore order in the riot areas. I shall certainly do my best to remedy any injustice done to innocent persons."

Slave Dealings in Constantinople.

Not long ago a report appeared in the English newspapers quoted from the Gazette de Lausanne of the sale by the Police, in the open market, of Armenian children at Constantinople. We communicated with the International Bureau at Geneva who have obtained confirmation of this brief report and further particulars of which we quote a translation below. This account of the unblushing trade in slaves carried on by the Turks is only too much in harmony with the reports of the unspeakable cruelties inflicted on the Armenian race generally. We greatly regret to hear that the International Bureau does not feel able, as we had hoped from the fact of its being in a neutral country, to take any action by way of protest, although the Armenian Committee at Geneva has been communicated with. It is impossible of course for an enemy country to take any steps, though the report has been forwarded by us to the British Armenia Committee.

"The Turks having in June resolved upon the systematic massacre of the Armenian race in Anatolia and Armenian Persia a number of young girls were brought to Constantinople in order that they might be reduced to slavery by the wealthy Turks (Pashas, Beys, etc.). For this purpose they were put up for sale either at Bit-Bazar or at Le Han des Persans at Stamboul. It is true that a remnant of modesty (if I may use the word in speaking of the Turks) prevented their being subjected publicly to shameful examinations, or to excessive embarrassments. All the same, the orphan children (and they all came under this category) of from 8-12 years were sold for 2 medjidiehs (or 8 francs of our money). The older girls fetched a higher price, of course; in one case a big pasha of great wealth bought one in order to make her a present to a friend. This was told me by a Belgian who was an eye-witness of the transaction. The sale of slaves at Constantinople, however, was not carried on on the same scale as at Adana, for instance. There I am assured that thousands of orphan girls were sold for a piece of bread. Did the police know of these things? Did the drink-sodden, lascivious Germans who rule as masters in Constantinople know of these things? The answer is undoubtedly, Yes; the Germans are the organizers, if not the partners with the Turks in these sinister jobs; we know they have shut their eyes, except, perhaps, Wangenheim, the ambassador who has just died. As for Von der Golz Pasha and Liman Sanders Pasha they have never protested either formally or actually. I conclude by assuring you that I have only too good authority for what I write."

New Member of Committee.

SIR CHARLES J. TARRING has accepted an invitation to join the Committee of the Society, and has been unanimously elected a member.

Sir C. Tarring has been Chief Justice of Grenada, British Consul at Constantinople and Judge of the Supreme Consular Court for the Levant. He possesses, therefore, a somewhat wide experience, and his journeys in Africa, where he has travelled in the interests of the London Missionary Society, have given him a knowledge of and interest in questions affecting native races which specially fit him to render service to our work.

Death of Count de St. George.

We regret to receive news from Geneva of the death on November 18 of Count de St. George, of that city, who has for many years been a corresponding member of our Society and taken a genuine interest in its work.

Count de St. George visited this country in 1913 and took part in the Society's annual meeting in April, to which he brought a message of goodwill from the Swiss League for the protection of Aborigines, and advocated the establishment of an International Bureau, which should collect information from different countries on native race questions, bring the existing societies together, and foster the creation of new ones.

Death of Dr. Booker Washington.

THE death of this well-known leader and educator of the coloured people in America, at the comparatively early age of fifty-six, took place at Tuskegee in the middle of November last, and the Committee of the Society has passed a resolution expressing their regret, and condolence with his family and colleagues. It will be remembered that when Dr. Washington was in England in 1910 he was entertained by the Society at a luncheon at the Whitehall Rooms, when a number of representative people attended to do him honour and considerable interest was aroused, letters being received from the Prime Minister, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Mr. Balfour and other leaders, expressing appreciation of Booker Washington's work for his race.

Washington's career was a remarkable one, and his story is traced in a fascinating way in his autobiography Up from Slavery. He was born in slavery in Virginia about 1858 (the exact date is not known), his mother being a young girl slave and his father an unknown white man. The child thus

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