18,000,000 acres which were proposed to be left undelimited for the moment, should remain unoccupied for a few years. As against Lord Olivier's view, he held that it was in the best interest of Southern Rhodesia that the areas for European and Native occupation should be settled at the earliest possible date.

Lord Clarendon promised, on behalf of the Government, to take notes of the points and criticisms that had been made.

Annual Meeting of the Society.

THE Annual Meeting was held on the afternoon of June 29th at Caxton Hall, Mr. Charles Roberts presiding. There was a good attendance and a general sense of satisfaction that the question of slavery and the slave trade was really being seriously taken up by the League of Nations, with the whole-hearted support of the British Government. This was admirably expressed in Mr. St. Loe Strachey's speech in moving the resolution of thanks to the Foreign Secretary and Lord Cecil, which we are able to publish in full.

The CHAIRMAN said that his formal business was to move the adoption of the Report, and the re-election of the Society's officers. Referring to domestic concerns, he thought that great indebtedness ought to be expressed to the Secretaries who did the work of the Society singlehanded, and displayed resource and initiative of which they could not speak too highly. They had to report, with much regret, the resignation of one who had done great service to the cause, and whom they were very glad to have with them that day-Mr. Brooks, Senior. "We know," Mr. Roberts said, "that his heart is still with us, and that it is only on account of advancing years that he asked to be relieved." They welcomed his son, Mr. Alfred Brooks, in his place, not only as a very efficient Treasurer, but because no-one had a better right to succeed him.

After welcoming back Sir Fowell Buxton from his visit to Abyssinia, the Chairman thanked the subscribers for the way in which they had responded to appeals to meet the end of the year with a clean balance-sheet. The Society's modest resources had been well-spent, and they got full value for their money. What was wanted was a rather broader basis. More members were needed, not necessarily large subscribers, but sufficient in number to carry on the work of the Society properly.

Mr. Roberts then continued: Vast work has been done since the early days of the Society, but no-one reading our reports can fail to see that there still remains a considerable field of labour for us to occupy. The old abuses which the public at large thinks have been swept away from civilisation, lurk about on its outskirts in dark corners in unadministered territory.

We are glad to know that during the past year very considerable progress has been made in wiping out slavery where no-one imagined that it existed. I think our more difficult task, however, is to obviate the revival of the old abuses under thin disguises in different names, in places where we thought the old evils were stamped out. You kill an abuse but, while you are looking elsewhere, it revives again either in the old form or perhaps under some different name. Here is the American Report on the employment of native labour in Portuguese Africa, a report which certainly makes it necessary to hold a very serious enquiry. We were gratified a few months ago to learn that the Portuguese Government, influenced by these reports, which are also confirmed from other sources, had appointed a well-manned Commission of Enquiry to go into these abuses and, though in the Society's history dilatory action on the part of the Portuguese Government is not surprising, yet in fact nothing has been done, and considering that these allegations have been presented to the League of Nations, I think it is time that we asked seriously when this Commission. is going to get to work.

Again, in parts of our own Empire there are too many wrong ideas about the relations between whites and natives, in Kenya, let us say, for us to relax any of our vigilance, and on that we may hear some words from Mr. Charles Buxton. We have unfortunately to regret and to deplore a serious step-the Colour Bar Bill which has been passed in South Africa, but on that a resolution will be proposed at a later stage in these proceedings, and therefore I will say nothing about it except that some of us remember the great words in sanctified language, about the way in which "no disability on the ground of place of birth, descent, colour or creed should be allowed to stand in the way of any of His Majesty's subjects, words which were framed first back in the thirties and were repeated with solemn promises to our Indian subjects. I think, remembering those words and the ideals of great statesmen of mid-Victorian times which they represent, we cannot but deplore this step that has been taken, recognising as we do that the right of self-government includes the right to go wrong. We feel that to introduce a Colour Bar in any sense, is to take a step which is in flagrant violation of all the ideals for which the Empire stands, and I speak with the strongest possible conviction in holding the belief that any step along that road leads you sooner or later to oppression. Let us turn to a more agreeable subject. We, as a Society, are not, I suppose, popular with Governments; it is not our business to be so. It is our business to pay attention to complaints or allegations and to ask that they shall be looked into when there is a prima facie case. I think we may congratulate ourselves on taking all reasonable care before we take action about any of the complaints or allegations that may come before us, but if that is the business of the Society we cannot escape from raising inconvenient questions which Governments, taking the whole range of political action into account, may well wish to ignore, and sometimes it is our business

to stimulate official action which lags behind what we think should be done or to suggest more vigorous action on the part of Administrators. So I think we cannot be popular with either our own or foreign Governments. We feel great satisfaction that we can express our high appreciation of the action which His Majesty's Government is taking at the present time. I think anyone who has followed the work which the Foreign Office has been doing in the drafting of the Slavery Convention and in their attempts to strengthen that Convention, can feel a real assurance that the Foreign Office is animated by a genuine desire to carry forward these efforts to get an International Convention against slavery to full success, and we are sure that its latest despatches to the League of Nations are characterised by that spirit. We can only wish that their efforts in the forthcoming Assembly at Geneva shall be crowned with full success.

There is work too which can be reached by international action in the way of establishing a charter for coloured labour to which also we look forward as very necessary. We shall propose at a later stage a resolution expressing our thanks to His Majesty's Government for what they have done and for the spirit in which they have done it. May I point out what new openings and new channels have been found, for our work since the League of Nations came into being. In former days when allegations were made we made protests, we passed resolutions, but action was extraordinarily difficult and open to misrepresentation. Now we have got the doctrine of trusteeship laid down in the Mandates, a doctrine which, applicable primarily no doubt to the mandated territories, must extend in its influence beyond these territories. We hope to have a Convention against Slavery and the Slave Trade which will make the task of suppression far easier than it has been, and we also hope to have through international action a charter which will prevent the abuses connected with forced labour and conditions analogous to slavery. All those possibilities have opened up channels for effective action by this Society. It creates new responsibilities for us; incidentally it becomes almost indispensable that one of our Secretaries should be present at the meetings of the Assembly of the League at Geneva. In a number of ways channels of influence have been opened up. Instead of the work of the Society being confined to representations and protests, to appeals to public opinion, there is now through international action a comparatively easy way of suppressing the abuses against which this Society has contended so long.

I beg to move the Report and the re-election of the Officers. I am told that the President is excluded as the post of President appears to be a continuing one. As I am no longer in Parliament I quite recognise that it would be desirable to have someone more in touch with affairs, and I can only say that much as I appreciate the honour that you do me in keeping me as President, yet as soon as you find somebody who can do the work of the Society more efficiently than I can do, I shall be most glad to abdicate the post in which you are good enough to leave me at present.

Mr. Roberts then moved that the names of the following Members of Parliament should be accepted as members of the Committee: Mr. G. M. Gillett, Com. The Hon. J. M. Kenworthy, Sir A. Sinclair, Bart., Mr. E. Thurtle, and Col. The Rt. Hon. J. C. Wedgwood.

Mr. THOMAS WICKSTEED, seconding the resolution, said that he was an old man of the third generation of workers in the fight against slavery; things were infinitely better than they were in his grandfather's time, but they were always ready to get worse again, and the work of this Society, in spite of enormous improvements, must still go on, for it was evident that the world in this respect could not be left without guardianship.

Mr. CHARLES RODEN BUXTON said: I think in the course of our meeting, while other subjects are on the programme, the subject of Kenya and East Africa ought not to be altogether omitted. I am not going to deal in any sense exhaustively with it, but I merely want to bring the problem before your minds, for many of the biggest questions concerning the native races of the Empire reach their most acute point, or are seen in their strongest colours at any rate, in that particular part of the world. There have been undoubtedly great improvements in many respects in the treatment of the native population there, but it still remains true that there are many points continually arising which give most serious concern to the members of this Society. I am not going to mention things of a sensational character, although I very easily might. I could very easily quote you things from newspapers in East Africa which would strike you as sensational, if not alarming and horrible, but I am merely going to allude to one or two points which perhaps fundamentally are more important, broader questions, just to suggest to you what are the things on which I think we ought to be particularly vigilant. The first question is the problem of the adequacy of the supply of native labour.

We are always hearing it assumed that because there are certain white settlers there, and so forth, native labour must be produced. It is a gratuitous assumption; it is one of those things which may or may not be true, but it is not to be taken as an accepted fact. As a matter of fact, the Commission which was appointed last year, threw very grave doubts upon the question whether there is an adequate labour supply for the demands now being made, and in view of the fact that large schemes of railway construction are in view it is a question which ought to be scientifically investigated. All we have at present is a Commission which holds its. enquiries apparently in secret, which travels about from place to place, and the local Representative on the Legislative Council is a member for the District with which he is concerned. Another point is that from time to time officials get into trouble with the settlers for standing up in one form or another for the ordinary legal rights of the native. One case has come before the public which has been very fully reported and discussed in the Press, the case of Mr. Cooke, a young official who, according to his lights, was standing up for the rights of the natives. He was exposed to attacks

which were not resisted by the Government which he was serving, and was probably seriously damaged in his career. This case is merely an example of the fact which I submit to you as a very serious fact indeed, when you get officials taking a very strong stand on the part of the natives, who are not sufficiently backed up by the Government of the country. Again, with all the emphasis we lay upon the need to give the native a free life and a free chance and choice between one occupation and another, we have not yet got from the Governments of the Colonies concerned any really clear and final statement that they are impartial in this matter as between wage labour on the one hand and native cultivation on the other hand. It should be laid down that it is not the business of the Government to exercise pressure or go about recruiting for private employers. We ought to have a perfectly clear, simple, declaration to that effect.

Lastly, we have a proposal, threatened or adumbrated at any rate, that in Kenya there is to be what is called Responsible Government set up. The Colonial Secretary says that he has heard nothing about it, but evidence continues to accumulate from many independent sources that it is proposed and the proposition is taken seriously in certain quarters.

It means the rule of 12,000 people for something approaching 3,000,000 who are unrepresented. That is what it means disguised under the respectable name of Representative or Responsible Government. If that were to be, it would mean that we should lose the slight chance we now have of insisting upon justice through the medium of the Colonial Office, and we should be brought up at every point whenever we wanted to stand up for the interests of the native population by being told "this is not your affair, it is the affair of the Responsible Dominion, and you have not the right to interfere." All of these are I venture to submit, points which should be watched, and prove the need and importance of maintaining the work of the Society.

Mr. W. MCGREGOR Ross drew attention to an announcement in The Times that the Secretary of State had sanctioned the formation of a Defence Force for Kenya Colony, where he had lived for twenty-three years. If the question of self-government were discussed they would be able to see whether the settlers of Kenya were concerned for the welfare of the natives or were indifferent to the advancement of the tribes. The Defence Force was to consist of all the European males in the Colony, from the age of 16 to 60, which was to defend Europeans from attacks or dangers of some sort. There was in no quarter any enemy close to Kenya Colony and if the Europeans there were genuine in a desire for the welfare of the natives, this was not to be promoted by arming all the Europeans and constituting them a military force. He had had the pleasure of both speaking and voting against this precise measure in the Kenya Legislature in 1920, but now for the first time, the Secretary of State had formally given it his sanction, and he hoped that the Kenya settlers would turn it down.