September last, when he spoke of the new scheme which is being worked out for controlling the conditions of recruitment and emigration of Indians.

Labourers," he said, "have a right to emigrate if they wish, and it would be very unwise and very undesirable on our part to prevent them, and we are therefore trying to devise arrangements which will secure that recruitment in this country is conducted under decent conditions, that a proper sex ratio will be maintained, and that on arrival in the country of their destination they will be properly treated and allowed to engage themselves on terms at least as free as those obtaining at present in the Malay Peninsula, where a labourer can leave his employer by giving a month's notice. These are the conditions which, in our letter to local Governments we explained, are regarded by the Government of India as necessary for a satisfactory system of emigration. I think it will be clear to all who have studied the question, that the Government of India would be departing gravely from its duties if it allowed emigrant labourers to leave this country without proper protection and safeguard. There are a certain number of labourers, I believe a very small number, who emigrate as genuine free labourers, that is to say, unassisted by pecuniary help and uninvited by any interested agency; but if we can confine ourselves to the abolition of our existing indentured emigration, a position will arise in which parties interested in procuring Indian labour will be free to induce labour to emigrate by pecuniary help under any conditions they like, so long as the labourer does not go under indenture. The abuse likely to arise out of such a state of things would be very serious. trolled recruitment cannot, it is clear, be permitted under any circumstances. Lord Hardinge promised, and I associate myself with him, to deal with certain points raised by my honourable friend Pundit Madan Mohan Malaviya during the last session of the Legislative Council. These points were the better supervision of colonial recruiting in India, the insertion of information regarding the penal conditions attaching to the labour contracts in the indenture signed by the intending emigrants and the undesirability of labourers in the Colonies being compelled to do work repellent to their caste ideas and religious beliefs. Regarding the first matter we have already consulted Local Governments very fully when asking their views as to the precautions which will be required after the abolition of indentured emigration. As to the second point you are no doubt aware that Fiji has now abolished imprisonment for labour offences and other Colonies are arranging to follow suit; but there will still be certain provisions remaining which, we think, should be brought to the notice of the intending emigrants and we have arranged to do this as soon as the various Colonial legislatures concerned have passed the amendments to which I have alluded. We have also asked the Secretary of State to press the third point on the attention of the Colonial Government concerned."

Uncon

The Viceroy went on to say that the subject of labour conditions was one on which Indian public opinion had every right to be heard, and they desired its fullest expression from private persons and associations. interested.

Another point which the Ceylon League is urging is the need for the appointment of a protector of coolies to prevent assaults upon them, and false charges such as are often brought against those who give notice to leave. It is represented that protectors able to speak Tamil freely with the coolies and having sympathy, patience and tact, could do much to protect the interests of these ignorant and helpless people and to maintain harmonious relations between employer and labourer.

Trouble in Liberia.

CONFIDENTIAL information having been received by the Society of the arrest and detention by the Liberian Government of a number of Kroo chiefs who had approached the Liberian representative seeking a settlement of a local conflict on the Kroo coast between the natives and the Liberians, and their condemnation by court-martial, a letter asking for an inquiry was addressed to the Foreign Office, in reply to which the following reply was received :— FOREIGN OFFICE,

SIR,

February 2, 1917.

On receipt of your letter of the 22nd ultimo, a telegram was at once dispatched to the Acting British Consul-General at Monrovia respecting the report that the Kroo chiefs summoned to Sinoe were to be courtmartialled and, it was feared, executed; and Mr. Parks was instructed to impress upon the Liberian Government the bad effect which would be created should such an incident occur before full investigation had been made into the causes of the trouble.

I am directed by Mr. Secretary Balfour to inform you that a telegram has been received from Mr. Parks, in reply, reporting that sixty-seven Kroo chiefs have been tried by a special Commission and found guilty of rebellion and murder, and have already been sentenced to death.

Mr. Parks adds that the proceedings of the Commission are not yet made public, but that the President of the Republic has been induced to exercise clemency in respect of forty of the condemned chiefs, and that the others will be executed at Sinoe on February 2.

I am, etc.,

The Secretary,

(Signed) W. LANGLEY.

The Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society.

The Late Earl of Cromer.

THOSE who are in the inner circles of the Society know how valuable has been the assistance and sympathy which Lord Cromer has been ever ready to give to its work during the last few years, especially on the subject of the Portuguese slavery, on which he has both written and spoken frequently and forcibly. Of his work in suppressing slave trading and slavery in Egypt and the Sudan there is no need to write at length; it is writ large in the history of the great territory with which Lord Cromer's administrative life was so long and notably associated, but we may quote a paragraph from a letter written to The Times by the Secretary of the Society when Lord Cromer finally left Egypt in 1907

'Two measures may be mentioned which have materially contributed to this result (i.e. the suppression of slavery in Egypt), viz. the establishment of a home for freed women slaves in Cairo which was initiated in 1884 under the auspices of Lord Cromer by a number of influential men both in England and Egypt, who formed a strong committee for raising the necessary funds, and the Slavery Convention which was drawn up in 1895 by the efforts of Lord Cromer and the late Sir John Scott. Of the former, Lord Cromer wrote that he regarded the Female Slaves' Home as a most important part of the general machinery adopted in Egypt for the suppression of slavery, and that he knew of no measure more calculated to hasten its entire disappearance.”

In a speech in the House of Lords on the Portuguese Slavery question in July, 1913, Lord Cromer reminded the House of his work in putting down slavery in the Sudan. No proclamation, he said, was passed and nothing sensational was done, which attracted attention, but "a steady, continuous pressure was put on " by the Governor-General, Sir R. Wingate, and "in spite of the enormous difficulties, at this moment there is neither slavery nor forced labour in the Sudan."

The Committee at its February meeting passed a resolution expressing appreciation of Lord Cromer's work and sympathy in his loss, which was forwarded to Lady Cromer.

The Committee.

WE have to regret the loss of three members of our Committee who have felt obliged to resign their membership on account of the difficulty of attending meetings when resident out of London: Mrs. Joel Cadbury, Admiral Sir George King Hall and Mr. J. G. Alexander. Mr. Alexander, who is the senior member of the Committee, having joined it as long ago as 1876, has, we are glad to announce, accepted the position of a Vice-President, and we hope that he will be able in that capacity still to attend Committees when possible.

Two new members have been duly elected, both representing the Society of Friends, which has been for so long closely associated with our work:

MR. ALFRED BROOKS, a son of our Treasurer, and MR. ALFRED F. Fox, a relative of the Vice-Chairman, whose enfeebled health now unfortunately debars him from taking any part in the Society's activities.

Obituary.

WE deeply regret to record the sudden death, at the end of last year, of MR. JOEL CADBURY, who had been associated with the Society for many years, and a member of its Committee which he joined in 1893, attending its meetings whenever he was able to be in London for them. We have also to deplore the loss of one of the Vice-Presidents, MR. FRANCIS RECKITT, who died on January 25. For many years he served on the Committee of the Anti-Slavery Society before becoming a Vice-President, and was a generous supporter of its work.

MR. WM. SUMMERS, who died in November last, was an agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, for many years in Morocco, and more recently in Madrid. Mr. Summers was a Corresponding Member of our Society.

LEGACY.

The late Mr. Francis Reckitt by his will bequeathed a sum of £500 to the Society.

Lagos Auxiliary

In addition to the names of the officers given in our issue for April, 1916, we are asked to add the following:

Registrar of Correspondence-Mr. J. O. Davies.

Financial Secretary-Mr. L. A. Cardoso.

Assistant Secretary-Mr. O. Labinjo.

Committee Messrs. J. W. Vaughan, Yesufu Agoro, A. W. Thomas, J. Amblestone, D. A. Taylor, Fred E. Williams, Chief Obani Koro, the Revs. N. Johnson, A. N. Cole, W. B. Euba and J. S. Fanimokun.

Review.

THE EMPIRE AND THE FUTURE.1

THE general object of these admirable lectures delivered at King's College, London, in 1915, is to enlighten public opinion on the meaning of our 1 Macmillan & Co,