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be made by the Mandatory Power to obtain for the commerce or navigation of it national treatment more favourable than that which is accorded to the commerce and navigation of all other nations. The Mandatory cannot within the territory above mentioned concede any monopoly or privilege of any sort in mining, commercial or industrial matters. Customs duties shall be levied equally on the importation of goods, produce or manufacture of any member of the League. No discriminating duties upon exports shall be imposed which would have the effect of restricting the world's markets to the native producer.

8. Religious and Educational Work.-The Mandatory Power undertakes to maintain throughout this territory, subject only to any necessary limitation in the interest of public order or morals, complete freedom of conscience and religious toleration, together with the free and outward exercise of all forms of worship. No political or civil disability shall be imposed on the ground of religious belief or in consequence of a change of faith. Missionaries shall have full right to enter into, travel and reside in the territory with a view to prosecuting their calling, and shall be entitled, on behalf of the missionary or educational institutions with which they are connected, to buy and hold property of every description and to erect buildings for missionary or educational purposes and to maintain schools and institutions in connection with their work without distinction of creed. No difficulty shall be placed in the way of any community carrying on its schools in its own language, and there shall be no discrimination against such schools and institutions as compared with other establishments providing the same standard of education.

The natives shall be secured the free right to obtain education for their moral, material and intellectual development.

9. Diseases. The Mandatory Power undertakes to co-operate with all Colonizing Nations in combating disease. The Mandatory Power agrees to adhere to the stipulations of all existing conventions for the abolition of sleeping sickness and other diseases and the Wild Animal Convention.

10. Land. (a) The Mandatory Power agrees to recognize that the mandated areas are generally unsuited to European Colonization and that the economic stability of the territory is inherent in native industry, and undertakes therefore to declare that all lands not already alienated by regular title shall be declared native lands and that according to native law and custom the ownership is incapable of alienation. Provision shall be made in each mandated area for making native land occupation secure in title and sufficiently adequate in area to permit of both communal and individual holdings, and the tribes shall not be dispossessed of their ancestral lands, notwithstanding any concession purporting to have been made by their

chiefs. The Mandatory Power agrees only to permit leases of land for areas not exceeding acres and subject to periodic revision of terms. Further, that in the event of land being required for public purposes, adequate compensation both in land and for disturbance shall be made to the indigenous occupiers. In all matters affecting land, the Mandatory Power as Trustee for the inhabitants shall agree to observe native law and custom as the dominant factor in all land transactions.

(b) The Mandatory Power agrees that once native reserves have been officially allotted to indigenous tribes the title to them should be a secure one, and that portions of reserve land should only be alienated from the natives for indispensable public works and then only upon the same conditions as those applying to the alienation of lands occupied by immigrants or settlers.

II. Reports.-The Mandatory Power undertakes to submit to the Mandatory Commission of the League of Nations annual reports upon the conditions of the inhabitants of this territory. These reports shall include full information upon all matters affecting the inhabitants, including measures taken to maintain public order, disturbances-with full reports upon casualties-the progress of education, the granting of land leases, public works, judicial proceedings. The Mandatory Commission established by the League of Nations shall be capable of hearing and adjudicating upon allegations of violation of these international obligations, whether preferred by the natives, tribes, or responsible bodies representing public opinion; and shall be charged with the duty of maintaining the observance of the Convention.

12. Political.-Adequate provision shall be made for consultation with the natives either through their recognized chiefs or otherwise, as for instance in the case of the National Council of Basutoland and the Transkeian Council in the Cape Province, in all matters of legislation affecting them, in such a manner that they shall be informed of any proposed legislation and enabled to give their views upon the effects of such legislation upon their interests. The purpose should be kept in view of securing for the natives full citizenship in the mandated area. In the event of any person being deported from the territory full reports of the charge and evidence shall be submitted to the Mandatory Commission.

The Articles 10 and 11 of the General Act of Berlin shall apply to the area covered by the Mandate, and the Mandatory shall within five years. declare the permanent neutrality of the mandatory area.

13. Revenue and Taxation. The administrative expenditure of this territory is the liability of the Mandatory Power and may be met by taxation but no collection of revenue shall be "farmed "out to any official or unofficial person, nor shall any official benefit personally thereby.

14. The Mandatory Power agrees to surrender any and all of its rights or privileges in the said territories in case the Mandatory Commission, after full inquiry, should establish clear violations of the Convention. In the inquiry which may be held into allegations of default, responsible persons acting in a representative capacity shall be competent to submit evidence to any Commission which may be set up for the purpose of the inquiry.

The Committee of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society attaches great importance to the selection of the Members of the Mandatory Commission and begs to urge that the members should be chosen not only for their knowledge of Colonial questions, but also for their breadth of vision and known sympathies with the progressive aspirations of the native races. The Committee also begs to submit for consideration the advisability of including an African in the personnel of the Mandatory Commission. July, 1919.

SOME PRESS COMMENTS.

AN AFRICAN CHARTER.

"THERE is now in existence as part of the Paris Conference machinery a 'Commission on Mandates,' and this Commission has requested that highly expert and disinterested body the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society to draw up a model mandate, which we published on Saturday. This whole question of mandates, their definition, supervision, and enforcement, has by the Peace Treaty been made a special charge of the League of Nations, and is dealt with in article 22 of the Covenant which forms part of the Treaty. It is declared in the Covenant that the well-being and development' of the peoples concerned 'form a sacred trust of civilization' for which securities are to be taken. The mandates and the powers of the League in relation to them constitute these securities, and obviously the need for them is greater in proportion to the backwardness and helplessness of the peoples concerned. It is this which gives its importance to the draft mandate now submitted as a model for an African colony.

"Certain things are vital in this matter that the rights of the native population in their land should be respected, that their labour should remain their own and not be subject by any device to force, that their territories should not be liable to the special exploitation of a mandatory Power, or their trade to restrictions in its interest.

"Thus, short of naked slavery, many abuses are possible in the recruitment of native labour which fall very little short of it, and the Society's draft mandate proposes a number of precautions, suggested by its long experience of evasion and abuse in this matter, of the highest value, and which are indeed in great part essential if the purpose which the prohibition has in view is in fact to be carried out. In the matter of land rights, the Society makes a very drastic and far-reaching proposal. It asks that, as a first step, it shall be agreed by the mandatory Power that the mandated areas are generally unsuited to European colonization, and that the economic stability of the territory is inherent in native industry.' Accordingly, 'all lands not already alienated by regular title shall be declared native lands'—that is,

lands by native law and custom inalienable. That indeed would be a wonderful change in the whole status and outlook of the native populations, and would constitute such a charter of freedom as they can in no way otherwise attain, for the whole future of the native depends on his possession of the land, and it is expulsion from this primitive heritage which has everywhere been the root cause of his misery and his oppression. In lands capable of white settlement this ideal may be unattainable, but in the tropical regions it is still open to us, and it would indeed be a glory to the administration of the League if it could establish so precious a rule. As to trade and the exploitation of natural resources, the draft mandate again 'very properly enlarges and defines the far too vague and limited prescription of the Covenant. This merely enjoins that the mandatory shall 'secure equal opportunities for the trade and commerce of other members of the League.' Obviously that is only a temporary provision, and the restriction of trading facilities to members of the League cannot last. The draft mandate extends them to' subjects of all nations,' and forbids at the same time any monopoly of any sort, in mining, commercial, or industrial matters,' as also any discriminating duties upon exports which would have the effect of restricting the world's markets to the native producer.' That is a clear application of the principle that we shall in the administration of these lands treat the interests of their peoples as, in all sincerity, a trust. If that principle is accepted the rest follows; if it is not accepted, what becomes of the fine profession of the Covenant to which every signatory Power has pledged itself, and what is to be put in its place? At long last there is here a chance of making practice square with profession."-Manchester Guardian, July 28.

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'The terms of mandate issued by our own Aborigines Protection Society present a definition of the relations between ruler and ruled which may well become a Declaration of Rights. Its principles should apply not only in cases where a mandate exists, but wherever one race takes the great responsibility involved in ruling another. . . . The final safeguard of the native's rights, however, is his ownership of the land, and the demand that the League of Nations should preserve to the natives all the land not already alienated is at the base of the charter. Without these clauses no mandate can be carried out upon the principle of a trusteeship for and on behalf of the inhabitants of the mandated area.' Without the guarantee of that principle no mandate should be granted or continued."-Daily News, July 25.

"The Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society issues a memorandum laying down the principles which they think should be subscribed to by those who accept mandates for the late German Colonies. There are many colonial systems in vogue, and it would not be fair to impose upon a mandatory Power terms of government inconsistent with its peculiar governing genius. Nevertheless, if the League of Nations is to be a reality, and the mandate a real one, it is evident that general principles of government laid down by the League must be accepted by those who derive authority from the League. The memorandum of the Society sets forth a very useful draft mandate which might well be accepted as a working basis for discussion."-Daily Chronicle, July 25.

The Matives of Togoland.

THE following letter has been received from the natives of Togoland, together with a copy of a petition which has been forwarded to Lord Milner, appealing

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that their country may remain, in accordance with native wishes, under the administration of Great Britain as Mandatory.

LOME-TOGOLAND,

June 16, 1919.

TO ANTI-SLAVERY AND A.P. SOCIETY, LONDON.
SIR,-

Enclosed please find the following letter and copy of petition forwarded by the people of Togoland to His Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, and trust your press will assist the natives of Togoland to stay under the present Government.

SIR,

Yours very truly,

R. AFLAWO COLE.

LOME-TOGOLAND,

June 16, 1919.

Permit us please to insert in your valuable paper the following for publication:

As the world drama is coming to a close and peace would soon be signed, we would like to know if we shall be consulted as to the Government we desire to serve under, or if the wish of the people would be consulted in accordance with President Wilson's Fourteen Points? We point out that it will be the interest of the British Government to save us from the political ruin which is approaching us; if a mandate is given to any other Power besides the present Government it would be an indelible stain on the fair name of England if we are handed over to alien Government of not our choice.

To avoid being handed over to a Government of not our choice the following petition has been forwarded straight by the people of Lome, to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, LORD MILNER, pointing out our determination to stay under the Mandatory of Great Britain.

We have every hope that your powerful press would be an exponent to invoke England during the peace Conference to hear our prayer. We remain, etc.,

NATIVES.

CABLEGRAM TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES, LONDON. Please convey the following petition to the Peace Conference through the proper channel.

We, the undersigned, inhabitants of Togoland, humbly submit this for consideration in the Peace Conference.

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