Papua.

OFFICIAL REPORT.

THE report for the year 1923-24 was published only a few weeks after that of the previous year.

In it the Lieutenant-Governor in his remarks on the general results of Native Administration, writes that "taken on the whole the year has been a satisfactory one, and there is a more hopeful feeling in the Territory than at any time since 1914." Speaking generally, he says, the improvement of late years has been very marked.

HEAD HUNTING.

Head hunting has apparently not been completely stamped out in all districts, but Sir Hubert Murray allows that some sympathy may be felt for a savage people so recently brought under the restraints of civilisation!

"The drab uniformity of life under Government control is doubtless very irksome to the more enterprising among the youths of the village, the longing for the intense excitement of the old days becomes too strong to be resisted, and the result is a head-hunting raid upon some hereditary enemies of long ago. It is in fact a reaction against the intense boredom of our civilisation as we present it to the Papuan savage, and is evidence of a feeling with which many of us can sympathise though, as administrators, we cannot leave it unchecked."

LABOUR,

The report of the Native Affairs Department refers to the satisfactory conditions existing between Europeans and their native employees. "Native interests seem to have been well protected, and there do not appear to have been any very serious breaches of the law. It is a happy state of affairs which I trust will continue."

The conditions of work are described as being as good as we can expect under an indenture system. The Department gives advice to the natives and investigates complaints; the Commissioner goes round visiting labour offices and villages, and also inspecting some plantations where he meets employers, recruiters and natives and discusses matters of interest with them. "The natives seem to have no serious grievances."

Natives engage for terms of three years as a maximum (miners and carriers for eighteen months), and no native is allowed to engage for two such periods unless he has returned to his village at the end of the first, and an interval of one year at least has intervened without contract. Exemptions are granted under special circumstances. There seems less danger of the disintegration of village life now that the demands for plantation labour is less heavy.

Women are not allowed to be recruited for work on plantations or mines, but may accompany their husbands if they and the employers desire it, under certain conditions, but not many leave their homes.

A favourable report of native labour is given by the Public Works Department; general health good and conduct excellent.

DIVISIONAL REPORTS.

The reports of the magistrates in the different districts 'on native affairs are also generally favourable. In the Delta and Misima districts the records show an almost total absence of crime.

In the Western Division the natives would be" exceedingly tractable " if only their shyness and distrust of strangers could be overcome. A striking characteristic is their "wonderful passivity of expression " under all circumstances. Of the people of the same Division the Acting Resident Magistrate writes that their practices should be described rather as nonmoral than immoral. He makes amusing mention of the way in which writers of fiction in some British magazines have used the Fly river district as the scene of thrilling (imaginary) adventures, "with the most fantastic stories of a certain tribe called the Sambios, who are supposed to dwell upon the banks of the Fly river and carry out the most revolting forms of torture upon their frequent victims." There is no such tribe at all!-Sambio being a password and a cry of peace. Nor is there any evidence that the Fly river tribes practise any system of torture.

Education is carried out in Missionary Schools, the cost of primary and technical education for the year being about £5,000..

The Lieut.-Governor speaks of a "singular and very laudable spirit of conservatism" among the Port Moresby natives, which may, as a rule, be said of the whole territory. "They are content to be good Papuans without aspiring to be bad white men," but this very conservatism is often an obstacle in the way of reform in methods of agriculture. Still, Sir Hubert Murray records that with perseverance much may be done, even in Papua, and he thinks that there is less active opposition to these new cultures than there used to be.

The "vexed question" of Population cannot be settled, even approximately, until the next census taking. The Governor says that whilst it is certainly decreasing in some districts, in others it is increasing. Families of Christian natives appear to be consistently larger than those of non-Christian; while there is not yet sufficient evidence, the few figures that are available point in this direction.

The Committee.

WE much regret to report the resignation of Dr. G. P. GooCH from the Committee on account of a breakdown of health, which has made it necessary for him to resign his place on several Committees. Dr. Gooch continues his keen interest in our work.

We have recently welcomed two new members to the Committee, Mr. C. DELISLE BURNS and Lady HALL.

Mr. Edmund Wright Brooks.

Ar the February Committee meeting the resignation of our Senior Honorary Treasurer was submitted, as Mr. Brooks feels that his great age and increasing infirmities make it impossible for him any longer to give personal attention to the work in which he has been for so long interested. The Committee, while fully sensible of the loss they sustain, could only accept the resignation with very great regret. The President moved a resolution of appreciation of Mr. Brooks' long service, which was unanimously carried. Mr. Brooks joined the Committees of both the AntiSlavery Society and the Aborigines Protection Society in 1894. When the amalgamation took effect in 1909, he continued as Treasurer of the united Societies. The terms of the Resolution follow :

The Committee of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society learns with great regret that Mr. Edmund Wright Brooks feels compelled by advancing years to resign the post of Joint Honorary Treasurer, which he has held since 1909.

The Committee desires to place on record its high appreciation of the invaluable service which he has rendered to the Society and to the interests of Native Races, having been closely associated with both the Anti-Slavery Society and the Aborigines Protection Society for over thirty years.

The Committee begs to assure Mr. Brooks of the respect in which he is held by all members of the Society, and the gratitude felt towards him for the vigour and devotion with which he has for so long co-operated in the work. The Committee will deeply feel the loss of his counsel and assistance.

Forced Labour in Barotseland.

In the last report of the Barotseland (Paris Evangelical) Mission we read the following reference to the abolition of corvée by the Paramount Chief last year-a welcome event hitherto unknown to us :—

one very important event is the abolition by Yeta and his chiefs of the last vestiges of slavery—namely, the twelve days' annual and upaid work (corvée), still required of the slaves liberated officially in 1906, as the price of liberty for the remaider of the year. It was a fruitful source of friction and abuse, the natives (men, women and children alike) being frequently called upon to go great distances to work for their chiefs at the very time they wanted to work on their own plots, and the Imperial Administration decided to inaugurate the new régime by abolishing it at one stroke. The chiefs were given a monetary compensation to enable them to pay wages. After some demur, they accepted

the situation, and the Proclamation was made on April 1st, 1925, the first anniversary of the Imperial Government taking over the administration. It is to be hoped the chiefs will take to heart the words of their Royal visitor on the subject, and take a pride in making the liberty of the subject a reality."

The closing sentence alludes to the ceremonial visit which the Prince of Wales, when on his South African tour, paid to Barotseland in July of last year, when he met the Paramount Chief on the banks of the Zambesi river, and greeted him in the King's name. He congratulated the Chief on the decision to give up the old custom of making the people work for the chiefs without payment.

MIGRATION FROM PORTUGUESE TERRITORY.

The fact of immigration of natives from Portuguese territory, referred to in the same report, is significant, and should be noted in connection with the Society's recent representations to the Portuguese Ambassador.

One very important fact observed by all, but especially by M. Bouchet, has now to be reckoned with, namely, the enormous influx into Barotse Territory of Natives from the Portuguese Colony of Angola (West of the Zambesi). These immigrants, now numbering thousands, are more or less refugees, seeking better conditions of living under the British flag than they could find under the flagrant Portuguese abuses. They are vigorous and industrious, but absolutely heathen,

New Treasurer.

WE are very glad to be able to announce that Mr. Alfred Brooks has accepted the invitation of the Committee to succeed his father as Joint Honorary Treasurer of the Society.

WEST INDIAN PIANIST.

We are asked to draw attention to two Pianoforte Recitals to be given by Mr. Bruce Wendell, a British West Indian Negro Pianist, at the Grotsian Hall, Wigmore Street, W.1, on Saturday, April 24th, at 3.15 p.m., and Tuesday, 4th May, at 8.30 p.m. Programmes and tickets may be had at the Hall.

ANTI-SLAVERY" CHINA.

A member of the Society asks if anyone can give information about certain china which was made at the time of the anti-Slavery campaign of the last century, bearing the figure of a kneeling slave holding up his hands. It is believed to be of Wedgwood manufacture, or similar to it. Our correspondent would be glad to know whether any of this china is available for purchase.

Annual Report, 1925.

LAST year we referred to the appointment by the League of Nations of a Committee to enquire into the question of "slavery in all its forms "-to quote the phrase used in the Treaty-as a development of special importance for the work of our Society. This year a further encouraging step forward was taken in the presentation by the British delegation to the League of a Draft Protocol on the Slave Trade, Slavery, and Forced Labour, which was brought before the Assembly in a revised form by Lord Cecil of Chelwood on the 26th of September, when the Draft Convention was recommended for approval and circulation to all States Members of the League and others, inviting their observations upon it before its reference to the Assembly of 1926.

This Convention, while not going so far as the Society would wish, especially as by Article 6, forced labour in some territories is recognised for private purposes (though it is described as "invariably to be of an exceptional character "), marks a great advance, notably as being the first international document to deal with the question of forced labour. The Committee of the Society passed a resolution expressing appreciation of Lord Cecil's work at Geneva in connection with the Protocol, which was presented to him by an informal deputation in November, and appointed a special Sub-Committee to consider jointly with three members of the League of Nations Union, including its chairman, Professor Gilbert Murray, what steps could be taken to strengthen the Convention. The Sub-Committee, which received personal assistance and advice from Sir Frederick Lugard, made certain recommendations to the appointing Committee, which were approved. The draft Convention on Slavery was discussed in the House of Lords on December 16th, on the motion of Earl Buxton, who referred to the Report of the Slavery Commission as a valuable document, throwing light upon the whole situation in regard to slavery, which unfortunately was still found to exist, even in its worst forms, in many parts of the world, slave-raiding and slave-trading going on in no fewer than nineteen areas, while domestic slavery and forced labour still prevailed to a large extent. The Primate and other Peers took part in the Debate, and Lord Cecil gave a sympathetic reply on behalf of the Government, admitting the evils of forced labour, and promising the publication of information on slavery, as far as possible without offending national susceptibilities. Lord Cecil also threw out the significant suggestion that the International Labour Office should draw up" a kind of charter for forced labour all over the world "-a suggestion which the Society has pressed upon that organisation, and which is being followed up with success.

Memorial to the League of Nations.

Sudan Slavery.

In May the Society addressed a considered memorial to the Slavery Committee of the League of Nations, urging the League for a definition of modern slavery, and suggesting an international Convention to lay down the principles governing the employment of coloured labour.

At the same time, information received by the Society from a former official of the Sudan Government, upon slavery conditions in that country, was forwarded to the Commission. Since that time we understand that a Circular has been issued by the Sudan Administration, adverting to the decision that all persons born after 1898 are free, and declaring that action would be taken to carry out the policy by which masters are forbidden to retain Sudanese servants against their will. Lord Cecil affirmed in the House of Lords Debate that great efforts were being made to deal with