Anti-Slavery Reporter and Aborigines' Friend. The Annual APRIL, 1916. Quarterly Motes. THE Society's meeting this year will, owing to the continuance of war conditions, be, like last year's, of a someMeeting. what informal character. The time fixed is Tuesday, April 11, at 3.30 at the Westminster Palace Hotel, when our new President, Sir Victor Buxton, will take the chair for the first time in this capacity. We hope for a large attendance of members and friends of the Society to welcome him, especially as we are to have the great satisfaction of hearing the United States Ambassador, Dr. Page, who has kindly consented to come and speak on the character and work of the late Dr. Booker Washington, in which he took a deep interest. We hope also that the Postmaster-General, who is an old friend and Vice-President of the Society, will take part in the meeting. Native Soldiers in the War. A GOVERNMENT report has been issued on the fine service rendered by the Nigerian regiments, to which the African Mail has called attention. "The average Englishman," it says," knows nothing of what native troops have performed in this war, except for scrappy details which have been permitted to filter through the Censor's office, and it will help them to realize, when this account is perused, that our black soldiers, too, have made sacrifices to the common cause. It may be that it will help him reform his opinion of the lazy nigger. In a recent interview with Mr. Bonar Law, published in a New York paper, we read that "The Colonial Secretary has no scruples about the employment of coloured troops, whose discipline under British officers compares favourably with that of any other soldiers. . . . The British. Empire has many millions of coloured men. Some of the Africans are superb fighters, but the number who can be trained to take part in European warfare is limited." Lewanika. LEWANIKA, Chief of Barotseland, whose death was reported last month, was an interesting and enlightened ruler in many respects. His action in setting free all the slaves in his country in 1906 has been recalled in most of the obituary notices, and on that occasion the Anti-Slavery Society forwarded to the chief a congratulatory address, engrossed and illuminated, assuring him of the deep interest with which the Society had heard of his courageous and right-minded policy. A later occasion, which we have not seen referred to, when Lewanika took a similar course towards slavery, was in 1913, when there was some revival of slave trading in Barotseland. The king called an assembly together, which was attended by over 1,100 people, to warn them against trading in slaves with the Portuguese over the border, when the Resident Magistrate and two of the chief headmen made strong speeches. Twenty-one persons were sentenced to imprisonment for this slave dealing. The Late King LORD REDESDALE, in his recent book of Memories, makes this serious statement with regard to the late King Leopold of the Belgians. II: "It was a fortunate thing for the world that he died when he did. Had he lived till now, Belgium would hardly have played the heroic part which she did in August and September, 1914. It is whispered-indeed, it is an open secret-that documentary evidence exists to show that King Leopold was deeply engaged to Germany and that he was prepared, not without reward, to allow Germany to invade France through Belgium." Native Race Protection in Peru. THE Society known as the Asociacion Pro Indigena in Lima sends us from time to time leaflets relating to its work, which we are glad to know is being actively carried on. From a recent report we learn that the association receives many complaints of ill-treatment of natives in different parts of Peru. In Urcon successful appeals have been made to the Government for protection of natives against an attempt to exact rent for native lands, while in the district of Puno the more virile race of the Aymaras are said to be leaving their own territory for Chile and Bolivia, in order to escape from oppression. Our New President. WE reported briefly in our last issue the acceptance by Sir T. F. Victor Buxton of the post of President of the Society to which he had been invited by a unanimous resolution of the Committee. Sir Victor wrote at the end of December : "I have now had time to give the matter my serious consideration and am sincerely glad that I am able to accept the position to which the Committee have invited me. . . . I feel it a very great honour to be invited to fill it, and to join the Committee in their labours for the benefit of the weaker races of the world. It will be not only a duty but the highest privilege and pleasure to take up this task, and to have an active part in the work of a Society which has done so much in the past for the cause of freedom and justice." As was mentioned in our last issue, Sir Victor has travelled repeatedly in both East and West Africa in the interests of the Church Missionary Society, with which he is closely associated, and is therefore familiar with problems relating to African peoples. He has for some time been a Vice President of our Society and has more than once presided at meetings of the Committee. There is a general consensus of opinion that alike by family tradition, training, and personal characteristics, no fitter man could have J7V Bustow been chosen to succeed Sir Fowell Buxton as President of the Anti-Slavery Society than his eldest son. The Disturbances in Ceylon. MR. P. RAMANATHAN, K.C., C.M.G., elected Ceylonese member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon, met some of the Society's Parliamentary Committee. at the House of Commons in January, and three members of Parliament subsequently had an interview with Mr. Bonar Law. The Colonial Secretary is, unfortunately, disinclined to grant an inquiry on the ground that it would revive the religious controversies now dying down. It is not proposed, however, that the inquiry should be into the riots, but into the proceedings which took place after the riots had ceased. Mr. Ramanathan also addressed a private meeting of members and friends of the Society shortly before his return to Ceylon. A Blue Book on the subject was issued in the same month containing despatches from the Governor on the rioting and the statement which he addressed to the Legislative Council. The Governor gave his account of the causes of the riots which arose, in his opinion, out of the widespread animosity of the Sinhalese Buddhists against the Mohammedans, the ground for which was mainly religious but also partly economic; he distinctly states, however, that he did not attach political significance to the outbreak, and that it was not intended as an attack upon Europeans or the Government. In the despatches Sir R. Chalmers describes the measures which he took to deal with the trouble, the proclamation of martial law, and the appointment of Special Commissioners to deal summarily with minor offenders in the localities affected, while the principal offenders were reserved for the Courts Martial. Martial law was continued in force until August 30, long after the riots had ceased, but, beyond a brief statement of the number of persons tried by Court Martial, the sentences inflicted and certain schedules, the Blue Book contains no report of the proceedings of the Special Commissioners, or reference to the very serious allegations which have been made as to the excesses committed by the military and police, the shootings, floggings and imprisonments said to have been inflicted under martial law and the reign of terror which is said to have prevailed. These allegations are supported by numerous affidavits in a memorial which has been sent from Ceylon to the Secretary of State signed by forty-seven representative natives of position and education belonging to the Buddhist and Christian communities in the island, including the Headmaster of Wesley College, Colombo, the Secretary of the Catholic Union and the Literary Secretary of the Christian Literature Society. Sir R. Chalmers, it is true, combats the statements made in the memorandum which was submitted by Mr. E. W. Perera, which, he contends, contains many inaccuracies and is unworthy of credit, but he does not deal with the serious allegations referred to. The Society has been in communication with the Colonial Office on this subject, and has decided to forward a memorial to the Government to which have been appended the signatures of many well-known public men. Review. RIOTS AND MARTIAL LAW IN CEYLON, 1915.1 Mr. Ramanathan has published this book on the Riots in Ceylon, in which he deals at length with the causes and the incidents of the disturbances in May and June and with the action of the Government. His account, 1 St. Martin's Press. HOOVER W which is very lucidly written, is given from the Sinhalese standpoint, and he contends with much force that the Government entertained an entirely wrong idea of the riots, thinking them to be signs of a deep-seated revolt. In the writer's view the riots originated from the intolerant and aggressive conduct of a section of the Mohammedans towards the Buddhists in Gampola as long ago as 1912 as well as from the 'attacks on Buddhist processions in January and May of last year. The proper steps which, if taken at the right moment, would have put an end to the incipient street fighting were, he says, neglected by the passivity or supineness of the police and the indifference of the magistrates and other officers, and the oppressive measures which followed were a result of the spread of the riotous spirit when once aroused. Mr. Ramanathan severely criticizes the Government and the Administration for proclaiming Martial Law when the employment by the civil power of the ordinary forces of police and soldiers would, as he maintains, have sufficed to quell the disorder, while he holds that Martial Law was oppressively and arbitrarily carried out in a partizan spirit, the secret of it being that there was a general belief in a conspiracy of the Sinhalese to massacre the European population. Other subjects with which Mr. Ramanathan deals are the arrest and imprisonment of influential Sinhalese citizens, the forced levy of compensation from the Sinhalese community and the Order of Indemnity which was obtained from the Privy Council for all acts done under Martial Law. The book constitutes a formidable indictment of the measures which were adopted. The reviewer of this book in The Times Literary Supplement, while criticizing the ex parte character of its statements, says : “We have found that the impression among onlookers in India is that the Ceylon Government erred in making no sufficient preparations to deal with disturbances which were known to be imminent, and that when they acted they handled the riots badly. Mr. Ramanathan, however, to some extent spoils his chance of a balanced hearing because he omits the other side altogether." Indian Coolies in British Colonies. PARLIAMENTARY PAPER.1 This blue book contains the Report of Mr. James MacNeill and Mr. Chimman Lal who were deputed by the Government of India more than two years ago to visit Trinidad, British Guiana, Jamaica, Fiji and Dutch Guiana in order to investigate the condition of the Indian immigrants. The special subjects into which they were to inquire included housing, sanitation 1 Cd. 7744. |