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NEW PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY, MR. CHARLES ROBERTS (WITH
PORTRAIT)

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NEW JOINT-TREASURER, SIR FOWELL BUXTON, BART.
QUARTERLY NOTE

NATIVE RACES AND PEACE TERMS: THE COLONIAL MANDATES

SOME PRESS COMMENTS

THE NATIVES OF TOGOLAND : PETITION TO LORD MILNER
PARLIAMENTARY: THE COLONIAL OFFICE DEBATE

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: SOUTHERN RHODESIA, ETC.
MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE IN BRITISH EAST AFRICA

SOUTH AFRICAN NATIVE LABOUR CORPS.

SIR HUGH CLIFFORD

DEATH OF MR. W. P. SCHREINER, K.C.

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Price Fourpence

Published under the sanction and at the Offices of

The Anti-Slavery & Aborigines Protection Society 51 Denison House, Vauxhall Bridge Road

London, S.W.1

Anti-Slavery Reporter and Aborigines' Friend.

OCTOBER, 1919.

[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 quotations 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.]

The Presidency of the Society.

WE have great satisfaction in announcing that the post of President of the Society has been accepted by Mr. CHARLES ROBERTS, who has been ViceChairman of the Committee since 1917.

Mr. Roberts, who represented Lincoln in the House of Commons for many years, was Under-Secretary of State for India in Mr. Asquith's Govern

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ment, and is deeply interested in questions affecting the natives of India. Many will recall his able chairmanship of the Select Committee of the House of Commons appointed to inquire into the abuses of the Putumayo Company in 1913.

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New Joint-Treasurer.

WE are very glad to be able to report that Sir FOWELL BUXTON, the eldest son of our late President, has accepted the position of Joint-Treasurer of the Society with Mr. E. W. Brooks.

Rhodesia:

Lord Cave's
Commission.

Quarterly Mote.

REPRESENTATIVES of the Society were heard at one of the sittings of this Commission appointed to inquire into the accounts of the Chartered Company and to determine, in accordance with the report of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the amount due to it for its administrative expenditure. A statement was put in on behalf of the Society, taking exception to the Company's claim for expenditure incurred in the Matabele Wars of 1893 and 1896, and pointing out that the costs of the natives' case before the Privy Council had been borne by the private effort of the Society in spite of the Resolutions of the Legislative Council of Rhodesia providing out of the Revenue for the representation of the case of "the inhabitants and people of Rhodesia." Mr. Harris spoke to this statement. The Company and the Crown reserved their observations upon it until a later date.

Mative Races and Peace Terms.

MEMORANDUM ON COLONIAL MANDATES.

THE Committee of the Society has had the opportunity of submitting to the Commission on Mandates appointed by the Council of the principal Associated and Allied Powers" a draft mandate in which its views are fully set forth, the terms of which follow. Some months have been spent upon the preparation of this document, to which great importance is attached, because the principles stated are designed to secure an extension of existing beneficent elements in Colonial administration and definitely to eliminate admitted abuses.

A deputation from the Society was received in July by Viscount Milner, M. Simon (France), and other members of the Commission, when Mr. Charles Roberts, Mr. Molteno, Sir Fowell Buxton and the Secretaries attended and presented their case, which they were assured by Lord Milner would receive careful consideration.

TERRITORIAL.

MEMORANDUM.

The Committee of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society has observed with regret that no provision has yet been made to carry out

the promise of the British Prime Minister, namely that before reaching a decision as to the political future of these territories steps would be taken to ascertain as far as practicable the opinions of the "Chiefs and Councils who are competent to speak for their tribes and members," and begs to urge that failure to carry out these deliberate pledges must have a deplorable effect upon the people of Africa. The Committee is also of the opinion that any decision arbitrarily reached which forces a native tribe against the wishes of the people under any particular Mandatory would not merely be a breach of faith, but could only lead to political unrest and disaffection.

Where the boundaries of territory, as fixed between the spheres of influence of any two European Powers by treaties or conventions subsequent to the Berlin Act, 1885, should be found to intersect tribal units, the Mandatory Powers should agree to undertake to restore the original boundaries in accordance with the decision of any Commission or Arbitration appointed for the purpose by the Mandatory Commission.

The Committee begs to submit in the form of a draft mandate the principles which in the opinion of the Society should be incorporated in order to secure the moral and material welfare of the peoples of the mandated

areas.

1. The Mandatory Power accepts administrative responsibility upon the principle of a Trusteeship for and on behalf of the inhabitants of the mandated area.

2. Revenue. The Mandatory Power hereby agrees to adhere to the principle that all local revenue, whether accruing from duties, imports, exports, or by taxes and licences, shall be devoted to local expenditure.

3. Slave-owning, Slave-trading, Forced-labour.-The Mandatory Power undertakes to enforce the absolute prohibition of the sale, gift or transfer, or introduction into this territory of slaves, including the system of "pawning persons, and of adoption in circumstances analogous to enslaving; not to recognize the status of slavery in any Court of Law, and to permit any person over whom rights as a slave are claimed by any other person to assert and maintain his or her freedom forthwith; the onus of proof of any debt or obligation alleged to be due by the person claimed as a slave shall be on the person claiming such debt.

The prohibition of compulsory labour shall be absolute, except for purely native purposes of public utility, and then only when demanded in accordance with native law and custom within tribal areas. Tribal rulers shall not be permitted to assign any powers they possess for calling out tribal labour. All voluntary labour shall be paid by a wage in cash to the labourer and

not to the Chief, or any other third party. All taxation discriminating between the natives engaged upon indigenous industry and those in the employ of immigrants or white men shall be prohibited.

No labour contract shall be valid which relies for its enforcement upon the sanctions of Criminal Law; all labour contracts shall be made before a Magistrate or other officer of the Administration. Breaches of Civil contracts shall be remedied by civil process only. No labour contract shall be valid for a period exceeding six months, at the termination of which the labourer shall be free to offer his services to any employer.

The Mandatory Power agrees to prohibit any recruiting, official or private, of labour from the mandated area for purposes outside those areas. The Mandatory Power agrees to submit to the Mandatory Commission copies of authorized labour contracts, which shall always provide for wages and hours of labour. The Mandatory Power further undertakes to make illegal the flogging of labourers and the Truck system.

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4. Arms and Ammunition.-The traffic in arms and ammunition shall be controlled in accordance with the General Convention entered into by the High Contracting Parties on this subject. But proper provision shall be made for the sale to the inhabitants of flintlock and "Dane guns, also gunpowder for the purposes of preventing depredations by large game. The Mandatory Power agrees to furnish the Mandatory Commission with an annual return of all gun licences issued by the Administration.

5. Spirituous Liquors.-The supply of spirituous liquors, the sale of opium and intoxicating drink of a strength exceeding 2 per cent. of alcohol, shall be prohibited, and only supplied in limited quantities by a medical certificate. The issue of certificates shall be in the hands of a Government medical officer (adequately paid), and the fee for such certificate shall be paid into the revenue of the country. In the event of any holder of a certificate being convicted of intoxication the certificate shall be cancelled and the recipient disqualified from again holding such certificate.

6. Military Forces.-Native armed forces shall not be organized or maintained except such as are necessary for the preservation of the public peace. No hinterland wireless stations shall be erected or maintained possessing a radius exceeding 300 miles.

7. Commerce and Travel.-The subjects of all nations shall be entitled on an equal footing to enter into, travel or reside, or engage in commerce, in this territory, subject only to compliance with the local law which shall contain no discriminating clauses resting solely upon race, creed or colour.

The commerce and navigation of all nations while engaged in lawful enterprises shall enjoy equal treatment in this territory. No attempt shall

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