Extract from "Berkshire Chronicle" of 20th March, 1931
SLAVES IN BRITISH COLONY.
LADY SIMON'S INDICTMENT
SIR JOHN SIMON TAKES THE
CHAIR.
The startling statement that there were still between five and six million slaves in the world to-day was made by Sir John Simon at a meeting organised by the Reading branch of the League of Nations Union and the Society of Friends, and held in the Large Town Hall, Read- ing, on Monday. There was a large audience, presided over by Sir John Simon, who was supported by the Mayor of Reading (Councillor F. G. Sainsbury), Lady Simon, the Mayor of Wokingham (Alderman A. E. Priest), Mrs. Benyon, the Hon. Chas. Lambton, the Archdeacon of Berks (Ven. R. Wick- ham Legg), Dr. A. B. Howitt, Mr. E. R. Castle, Mr. John Sherborne, Mr. B. Wakelin (hon, secretary, Reading branch, League of Nations Union), etc.
The League and Slavery.
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Sir John Simon, in his opening remarks, recalled the fact that many years ago he visited the Reading Town Hall, when their; candidate was Sir Rufus Isaacs, now Lord Reading. It was now a very great pleasure to come to Reading on an occasion which was not one of party controversy, but an occasion when they were calling upon all good men and women interested in the bet- terment of the world and prepared to help in practical steps to promote it, to join in this crusade. He was informed that the Reading branch of the League of Nations Union had membership of something like 3,000-a perfectly splen- did record. There would be
many people who held, as he held himself, that the creation of the League of Nations was the most important and permanent result of the war. What was not always remem- bered was that in the Covenant of the League of Nations was an undertaking by all who signed it to endeavour to stamp out slave trading throughout the world. For two or three years after, the Covenant work was done in other international direc- tions. Then A British statesman, Sir Arthur Steel Maitland, who was present officially at Geneva, called upon the League to set up an inquiry into the extent to which crude slavery still existed in the world. Many people of their generation had been rather disposed to think that the cru- sade carried on a century or more ago had ended in such complete success that slavery had been banished from the world.. But the League Commission discovered that as રી matter of fact slavery existed in its most awful forms-the absolute ownership of human creatures-with all the terrible con- sequences that must follow. The next step at Geneva, again under the leadership of British statesinen, Sir Austen Chamberlain and Lord Cecil, supported by statesmen in other countries, notably Dr. Nansen, was to bind the nations of the world together by a definite treaty. The anti-slavery conven- tion which resulted was signed by 33 states, including the United States, although not a member of the League.
An International Conscience Wanted. If slave trading was to be ended, con- tinued Sir John Simon, then slave owning must be ended, for, as in everything else, the supply and demand were related. There existed something like five to six million slaves in the world to-day; there were more actual slaves in the world to-day than were ever liberated as a result of Abraham Lin- colu's work in America, or who ever got their release as the result of the work of Wilberforce and Clarkson. The more they could get the mass of the people living in the world, men and women, to make their contribution towards an international con- science, the more it would be an effective, an elevating, a humane instrument. If they could only create this new instrument and make it effective, it was so much more likely to produce justice and fair play than any amount of armed force in the hands of any nation or combination of nations. (Ap- plause). The world was every year becom- ing more and more sensitive to public opinion. A remarkable instance had oc- curred in Liberia, that curious state founded on the West Coast of Africa for the purpose of receiving relased slaves from the United
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States. As a result of the attention of the world being directed to conditions in that country a commission of the League was invited, and some of the facts recorded in their report were shocking indeed. But there could be no question that they were in a better position to remedy the evils existing in Liberia than they could ever have been if it had not been for the power- ful and potent force of public opinion.
An Appeal for Humanity. Sir John concluded: There are people who would suggest that we have enough evils in our own country. I have not found that the people who take the keenest and closest interest in this anti- slavery movement are people who show in- difference to the remedying of wrongs at home. I do not think you can divide people into compartments like that. The fact that you are responsive to an appeal for human- ity, for fair play for those who are weak and suffering and powerless, makes you a better patriot and a better Englishman. The measure of our own devotion to free- dom, the true extent to which we deserve and justify our own possession, depends upon the vigour with which we respond to the appeal for those who do not enjoy what we have. This wide view of the needs of the world and the future of the human raco should make every one of us a better citi- zen in the actual work of our own lives, our own homes and our own towns. (Applause).
Sir John Simon then vacated the chair, having to leave early in order to take part in a division in the House of Commons. The chair was taken by the Mayor of Reading.
Present Slave Conditions.
Lady Simon, in tracing the history of commercialised slavery, said Britain had a bad record. Fifty years before Columbus the Portuguese started the business; then eight nations competed for the monopoly of the slave trade, and Britain won. Almost everyone, even people in the ministry, was engaged in the trade in one way or another. Churches and chapels in Bristol were built on the profits of the trade, and Liverpool became wealthy as a consequence of it. In the 18th century it was in its most active form. Then came the spirit of those abolitionists who were moved to pity, and so began the movement to stop the slave trade under the British flag. Wilberforce worked for twenty years before he got the slave trade abolished. But to our shame in some parts of the world slavery still existed. There was every excuse for ignorance; there was no excuse for apathy. The League of Nations Commission had reported that there was slavery in blazing activity in 19 differ ent areas of the world to-day. Abyssinia the only Christian country which possessed slaves; it was, in fact, estimated that there were more slaves in the capital than there were free men. The procuring of these slaves was attended with the most horrible cruelties-husband was torn from wife, and child from mother. No human being was good enough to have complete control over any other human being. (Hear, hear). It was
very creditable that the British nation should have an outpost in the Sudan, of which every slave in Abys sinia had heard, where they knew, if once they could reach it, complete liberty was theirs. (Applause), No escaped slave had ever been sent back by Britain.
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Child Slaves in Hong Kong. Arabia, as far as could be estimated, had 700,000 slaves, and in British, French and Italian Somaliland the different nations were constantly on the watch to capture slave traders from this country. There was a wicked device to help them get across the Red Sea, however, for the slaves were often marked as pilgrims to Mecca, thus making it more and more difficult to catch them. In China there were two million child slaves. There was only one way in which China could be got at through the League of Nations. That brought her to an English colony which condoned slavery, Hong Kong, where there were some 10,000 child slaves owned by the Chinese. She suggested that all present should write to their M.P. and ask what he was doing about that. Every person could do something if they only cared. She urged them to join the Anti-Slavery Society, and so help to redeem Britain's bad record by assisting those who were seeking to abolish slavery. Slavery was a terrible injustice to human beings; their crusade against it stood for the deep- est things the value of freedom, the hatred of oppression, and the conviction that the rights of an individual had nothing to do with caste, colour, creed or religion. (Ap plause).
Votes of thanks were accorded Sir John and Lady Simon, and the Mayor of Reading on the proposition of the Archdeacon of Berks, seconded by Mr. E. B. Castle (head master of Leighton Park School, Reading).