Ras Tafari and his Government are afraid of internal complications and difficulties with foreign Powers more than anything else, and this fear, it seems to us, is the only hope of securing means being taken to suppress the slavery which is rampant in the country, if only the Powers could be united and determined to see the suppression carried out.

THE NATIVE PROBLEM IN AFRICA.*

By RAYMOND L. BUELL.

THIS two volume work, which exceeds 2,000 pages, is a remarkable production. Indeed, there is nothing quite like it in literature on Africa, for Professor Buell has attempted to cover to some extent the greater part of the African Continent. Professor Buell was sent out to Africa by the Committee of International Research of Harvard University. He left the United States in June, 1925, and journeyed through the Union of South Africa, Portuguese East Africa, Basutoland, Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, the Belgian Congo, Tanganyika, Zanzibar, Kenya, Uganda, French Equatorial Africa, the French Cameroons, Nigeria, the Gold Coast, French Togo, French West Africa, Liberia and Sierra Leone. But his instructions were to limit his investigations primarily to French, British, Belgian and Liberian territory.

Mr. Buell has brought to bear upon African problems a mind obviously sincere, and a judgment based upon a wide knowledge of government practice. He naturally devotes a large section of his book to the land question, and he says of the East African problem :—

"As far as land is concerned, Southern Rhodesia has, however, made a settlement which is more liberal to the natives than that made by either the Union of South Africa or Kenya. It is now setting aside native purchase areas which will make the increase of these reserves probable. Apparently the Government of Nyasaland has decided to make few alienations of land to Europeans in the future, because of the acute situation which already exists in a number of districts. The land situation is most critical in Northern Rhodesia, where the government, under the pressure of the South Africa Company, which receives half of the profit from the land sales, is contemplating the establishment of native reserves and a policy of white settlement. Further land alienations to Europeans would increase the demand for labour."

We are of the opinion, however, that Mr. Buell's book shows considerable readiness to accept official statistics at their face value. This is a case in point, because whilst impressed with the area of the lands allotted to the Matabele and Mashona natives, he has apparently overlooked the very poor quality of much of the native reserve lands.

We have only space to refer briefly to one other subject in these massive volumes, namely, Liberia. This section makes sad reading for all those who have looked with a kindly eye upon the only Negro Government of * "The Native Problem in Africa." (Two Vols.) (Macmillan. £3 3s. net.)

Africa. Mr. Buell gives an excellent account of the early history of Liberia, and bringing his readers to present-day developments, exposes somewhat ruthlessly the existing corruption and mis-government. Indeed, he discloses, to use his own words "conditions which would make even Mussolini shudder."

Mr. Buell, dealing with the methods adopted for the election of the President, points out that the total electoral roll is only 6,000, but that the President who controls the voting machinery actually polled 45,000 votes in 1923, and in 1927, was re-elected for a third term by the "unprecedented majority" of 125,000 votes-out of a possible total of 6,000.

The administration of justice, Mr. Buell tells us, costs 90 per cent. of the revenue, whereas in the neighbouring Colony of Sierra Leone it costs only 20 per cent. of the revenue; that even the Liberians themselves do not hesitate to make serious charges against the whole judiciary, and he quotes Judge McCants Stewart as follows:

"Gentlemen of the Bar: Can we be quiet while our Judges are charged both at home and abroad with (1) ignorance, (2) excessive use of intoxicants, (3) the exhibition of prejudice or passion in the trial of cases, (4) shocking immorality, (5) accepting bribes."

Judge McCants Stewart was shortly afterwards removed from Office !

The 10,000 American negroes who rule Liberia appear to have con

ducted as many native wars as any other government in Africa.

Mr. Buell gives the following formidable list :-1832, Dey-Golah War; 1852, Grand Bassa War; 1856, Grebo War; 1875, Grand Cess War; 1893, Grebo War (The "Three Years' War"); 1910, Kru War; 1916, Kru War. In nearly every case these native wars were due to the

familiar reasons for most native wars-alienation of land, irregular taxation and so forth. Mr. Buell gives one instance of the kind of tyranny exercised by the negro Government which was so bad that it led to a remonstrance from Lord Grey:

For some reason two Liberian officials killed eight native chiefs which led the British Government to demand that they be withdrawn. The Liberian Government assisted by certain Americans brought the officials to Monrovia for trial. But while the charge of killing the chiefs was admitted by the defendants, the jury acquitted them on the ground of justification in a military emergency.' This acquittal led the British Foreign Office to protest to the United States that 'cruel and cold blooded murder was committed' while the American chargé at Monrovia informed the State Department that ' foreign representatives and local unbiased opinion regard trial as farcical.'''

The revelations in Mr. Buell's volumes make it easier to understand the intense antipathy which the negro peoples of Kru, Grand Cess and Grebo show towards the American negro Government of Liberia. It is a pathetic reflection that after nearly a century of negro government, Liberia appears to be almost the worst governed territory in the African Continent.

Headley Brothers, Invicta Press. Ashford. and 18 Devonshire St. E.C.2.

NATIVE LABOUR IN PAPUA: PAPER BY SIR J. HUBERT MURRAY

147

Published under the sanction and at the Offices of

The Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society,

51, Denison House, Vauxhall Bridge Road,

London, S.W.1.

ABORIGINES' FRIEND.

JANUARY, 1929.

[The Editor, whilst grateful to all correspondents who may be kind enough to furnish him with information, desires to state that he is not responsible for the views stated by them, nor for quotations which may be inserted from other journals. The object of the Journal is to spread information, and articles are necessarily quoted which may contain views and statements for which their authors can alone be held responsible.]

Where the Jury System Fails.

Quarterly Notes.

WE referred in our last issue to a recent shocking instance of the failure of the Jury system in South Africa in cases where white men are tried for offences against natives. Since then, a frank report has been published, as the result of an investigation into the subject by Professor E. H. Brookes, of the Transvaal University, and a small body of lawyers. "Extreme and deliberate injustice," they declare to be rare, though it may sometimes

occur.

South African juries discharge their duties conscientiously and according to their lights, but they are guided by assumptions which will not invariably stand the test of honest, unprejudiced analysis. An instance of this is the idea prevailing in some minds that no white man should ever be hanged because he has killed a native, and that if there is a conflict between the native and the European evidence, the latter is entitled to be believed.

The investigating Committee came to the conclusion that in mixed. cases the Jury system is a failure and should be superseded by courts consisting of a judge and assessors or three judges. They also advocate an alternative penalty for murder, for, so long as the death sentence stands, juries will not convict white men of murder of a native. The report severely criticises the way in which natives are treated by the police and the "hustling" to which they are subjected in the lower courts. "Conduct of a harsh and hasty type towards natives is so much the rule that they (the police) dare not deviate from it."

Western Australia.

EVIDENCE of the same kind comes from another part of the world, namely, Western Australia. The Protector of Western Australia said in evidence before the recent Commission on the Constitution of the Commonwealth, that native trials were too often" farcical in the extreme."

"The old theory that our laws have equal effect in respect to white and black is long since out of date, and native courts should be set up under entirely different conditions, where tribal custom and practice can be admitted as evidence. Here again local influences are too strong, and local juries admittedly fail to bring in verdicts against whites committing some breach of the law in respect to their black brothers. It has been said that no white man will ever be convicted by a jury in the North in respect of his dealings with the blacks."

The By the new Agreement drawn up between the GovernMozambique ments of Portugal and the Union of South Africa, it is Convention. provided that the number of Portuguese natives at present employed in the Transvaal mines shall be progressively and proportionately reduced during the five years succeeding the signature of the Convention to a number not exceeding 80,000. The contracts of Portuguese labourers must not exceed twelve months, but the labourers may re-engage themselves or extend their contracts for a further period up to six months. The maximum period of service of any labourer will, therefore, be eighteen months.

General Hertzog, speaking in the House of Assembly, said that the limitation to 80,000 was not entirely unreasonable. His Government had taken up the position that the South African native should be protected and not be displaced by natives from outside the country. South African industries were now demanding more natives, and there was now a far greater demand for native labour. But the Portuguese Government had maintained that it must have its own natives to develop its own territory, and must consequently cut down the supply from Mozambique.

This seriously affects the question of labour on the mines, and it is stated in the South African Press that the 20,000 decrease in labourers will be met by securing men from elsewhere (e.g., from Northern Rhodesia?). This is a matter upon which the Society must keep watch.

Native Races at Geneva.

*

WE call the attention of our readers to Mr. Harris's account on a subsequent page of his work last year at the Assembly of the League of Nations. This offers such an important opportunity for forwarding native interests and especially for international co-operation that it has become the practice of the Committee to ask its Parliamentary Secretary to attend there on the Society's behalf regularly during the September meeting.