that the services of the Native Advocate are grievously restricted by such a construction being placed on the clause.

In reply to representations made to him asking that the convicted men should at least be liberated on bail until the legality of their detention could be tested before the Courts (which were at that time in vacation for nearly two months) the British Resident Commissioner wrote that he had " already urged the immediate release of those who were charged with extortion." It must be remembered that these men had been in prison for several months.

REV. GEORGE BROWN, D.D. (OF SYDNEY), VICE-CHAIRMAN OF THE AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIVE RACES.

Dr. Brown, who has just returned to Australia from a visit to this country, has contributed an important article on the New Hebrides Question to the Contemporary Review for April.

The Resident refused to interfere in the case of a native who had been recommended to six years' imprisonment for murder, though there were special circumstances about the case which seemed to call for an exercise of clemency, the murdered man having threatened to poison four men, two of whom had subsequently died, and the man who killed him was appointed by a native council to do the deed.

Slavery in Portuguese West Africa.

THE arrest by the Portuguese authorities of the Rev. J. S. Bowskill, Baptist missionary at San Salvador, has brought the question of Portuguese slave labour into strong prominence, as there is no doubt that the native rising, and Mr. Bowskill's subsequent arrest, arose primarily out of the Portuguese demand for forced labourers to go to San Thome. The Society received private information from the Baptist Missionary Society some time before the news of the arrest came, that there had been trouble with the natives at San Salvador as a result of oppressive taxation by the Portuguese Chef de Poste, and a high-handed demand from the chiefs for 1,500 men for San Thomé. The chiefs refused, but the Portuguese made the native ruler, called the King of Congo, the tool, and as a result the natives, led by one Tulanta Buta, rose in revolt against the King, and numbers flocked to the standard. San Salvador was attacked and portions of it burned, and the mission station was turned into a place of refuge. Mr. Bowskill, as the senior missionary, and one who possessed the confidence of the natives, was appealed to by the Chef de Poste to approach the rebels and induce them to take part in a peace palaver. This Mr. Bowskill, at great personal risk, agreed to do, and bravely went out to the rebel lines, accompanied by a colleague and three Christian natives, with the result that Buta and his men dropped their guns and met the other side in conference. The King and his counsellors were exiled and peace restored for a time. Once more, however, trouble broke out, after the authorities had attempted further arrests, and again order was only restored when Mr. Bowskill and Mr. Ross Phillips had obtained an interview with the Portuguese Governor at Matadi, who sent a band of soldiers to San Salvador to restore order and supersede the Chef de Poste. Thus far the Missionary Society had been kept informed by letters from Mr. Bowskill, and the official information sent by the British Consul generally confirmed the account.

Suddenly news was received by cable that Mr. Bowskill had been arrested. It is supposed by his Society that the arrest was an act of revenge on the part of some minor officials owing to the action of Mr. Bowskill on behalf of the oppressed natives.

A number of questions have been asked in Parliament, the terms of which are reported on another page, from which the subsequent course of events can to some extent be traced.

The Angola Sub-Committee of the Society met early in March and discussed the situation which had already been brought to the notice of Sir E. Grey before the arrest of Mr. Bowskill was reported. The General Committee at the March meeting passed a resolution in the following terms :

"The Committee of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society desires to place on record its high appreciation of the courageous attitude

adopted by the Rev. J. S. Bowskill towards the oppressed natives of Portuguese West Africa, and calls upon His Majesty's Government to secure a searching and impartial inquiry into all the circumstances which led up to the arrest of Mr. Bowskill.

That this resolution be forwarded to His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the Rev. J. S. Bowskill, and the Baptist Missionary Society, with an assurance to that Society of the whole hearted support of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society in the task of securing justice for Mr. Bowskill."

As has been well stated in the Baptist Times

"The immediate cause of the revolt was the attempt to enforce slavery upon the natives of the district. The cocoa islands must have their tribute of contract labour, and contract labour is slavery under a modern name. Under the influence of the Chef de Poste, the King of Kongo played with this hated thing, and so brought about his own downfall. This only calls the attention of the Christian world once more to the fact of slavery in the Portuguese colonies."

The Committee of the Baptist Missionary Society and the Bowskill Auxiliary at Nottingham have passed resolutions expressing their pleasure at the action of the Anti-Slavery Society in regard to Mr. Bowskill's arrest, and their appreciation of its decision to see the matter righted.

We are glad through the courtesy of the Baptist Missionary Society to be able to publish a portrait of the arrested missionary.

A letter was addressed by the Society to the Foreign Secretary on this subject, and the following reply has been received:

FOREIGN OFFICE,

SIR,

March 13, 1914.

In reply to your letter of the 7th instant on the subject of the arrest of the Reverend J. S. Bowskill in Portuguese West Africa, I am directed by Secre

tary Sir E. Grey to state, for the information of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society, that he has urged the Portuguese Government to institute a strict inquiry into the causes of the arrest, and that the British Vice-Consul at Boma has been instructed to proceed to San Salvador, as soon as he can do so with safety, and to report fully on all the circumstances of the

case.

I am to add that it is not intended to publish in the forthcoming BlueBook any paper received after December 31st last, as the inclusion of such papers would only delay publication.

I am, etc.

THE SECRETARY,

W. LANGLEY.

ANTI-SLAVERY AND ABORIGINES PROTECTION SOCIETY.

PAMPHLET BY M. CLAPARÈDE.

M. Réne Claparède, our earnest and energetic corresponding member in Switzerland, who is President of the Swiss League, has published a pamphlet entitled L'Esclavage Portugais et le Journal de Genève, which is a terse and effective contribution to the controversy on the subject. The brochure contains certain articles and letters which were published last year in the Journal de Genève, the editor of which maintained that the accusations brought against the Portuguese Republic of encouraging a slave system in West Africa were unfounded, and that the arguments of the British Anti-Slavery Society had been completely met by the Portuguese Government, which had done everything possible for the welfare of the natives. M. Claparède, who replied to the articles, pointed out in how one-sided a way the case was presented in the newspaper, and how fully the slavery charges were borne out by the speakers in the House of Lords debate last summer. In the pamphlet the text is given of two letters addressed by the Secretaries of the Anti-Slavery Society to the Journal de Genève, but not inserted in that paper, on the ground that they could not devote further space to "a remote colonial problem" which was of interest to a limited circle of readers only. The impression left by the editorial handling of the subject was that the Portuguese Government had much the best of the argument, and that the British Government had reached conclusions. adverse to the anti-slavery case. M. Claparède, by his vigorous protest against the misleading quotations, the ignorance of facts and the prejudice which marked the treatment of the question in the Geneva journal, has once again rendered conspicuous and timely service to the cause. The pamphlet (copies of which can be had from the Society's office) has received a good deal of notice in the Swiss Press.

Slave-Trading in Barotsiland.

A REPORT has now been received by the Secretary of State from the Acting Administrator of Northern Rhodesia as to the convictions of natives engaged. in slave trading in Barotsiland last year. News that the Barotse natives near the Portuguese border had been buying slaves reached the Resident Magistrate at Mongu, from the Native Commissioner, in January, 1913. Inquiries were made, and Chief Lewanika reported that two of his people had been buying slaves in exchange for cattle. The Magistrate emphasized the serious nature of the offence, which he said must be fully investigated, and addressed the Assembly at Lealui, warning them that the custom must be stopped, and the slave dealers brought to trial. Lewanika wrote in strong terms to the Assembly at Nalolo, and thirty men were in consequence sent or trial, twenty-two of whom were convicted and sentenced to terms of imprisonment varying from two to twelve months, and one man was fined.

All these slaves, most of whom were women and children, had come, with one exception, from Portuguese West Africa; they were released and sent back under escort to their homes. Slave-trading is said not to be a custom of the Barotse; the facts suggested that the cases were merely a sudden recrudescence of the trade, and not an established practice, partly due to the lack of administration in Portuguese West Africa. Such cases did not occur in other districts where administrative control was complete. The Magistrate gave it as his opinion that any repetition of such slavedealing was very unlikely, on the ground that the native Assembly consisted of "shrewd men, mindful of their own interests, who would not welcome any diminution of their authority," such as they had been warned would follow if they did not use it in stopping the slave traffic, and would therefore keep a careful watch against such occurrences in the future.

The important point to note is that the slaves came from Portuguese territory and that the dealings appear to be due to want of proper control in Angola. It is hoped that H.M. Government will draw the attention of the Portuguese Government to the traffic and its evil results in British territory.

Rubber Slavery in South America.

In our last issue reference was made to reports received of the extremely unsatisfactory conditions of labour in the Beni district of Bolivia, where the peonage system involves abuses closely akin to slavery.

Confirmatory evidence has reached the British and Foreign Bible Society in letters from their agents in the same district. One of them, Mr.