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B. Suggestions.
34. The abolition of the status of slavery in law and in fact in the countries to which slaves are at present sent, as recommended in Chapter I of this report, would in itself, by putting an end to the demand, ensure the disappearance of the slave trade.
35. Until this end is achieved, it is to be hoped that the Powers exercising rights of sovereignty over African territories along the Red Sea and Indian Ocean will persist in their efforts to prevent the importation of slaves or the sale of free persons as slaves in Africa.
In this connection, the Committee can only express the hope that the happy collaboration which formerly prevailed between these Powers, including Egypt, will be maintained and, if necessary, strengthened. It is of the utmost importance that there should be no link lacking in the chain of supervision with which Arabia was formerly surrounded by agreement of the Powers to prevent the traffic in slaves to or in this part of the world.
36. All these Powers should, in particular, consider the possibility of inducing natives not to leave the territory to which they belong, unless they are provided by the authority of the country in question with a personal passport containing a precise description of their identity. A system of checking their passports so as to verify the return of their holders seems also desirable.
37. These Powers should, at all events, if they have not already done so, provide for severe penalties against the captains or other masters of vessels who are found attempting to leave or who have left any point on the coast other than one of the places specified, without having received a permit to leave. Similar penalties should be inflicted on the captains or other masters of vessels who take on board any person not provided with a passport issued by, or stamped with the visa of, the authority of the port of embarkation, after satisfying themselves that the person in question is really a pilgrim.
38. As regards supervision over vessels at sea or off the coast of Arabia or the Persian Gulf, it should be noted that Article 3 of the 1926 Convention provides for the conclusion, between all the signatory States, or between certain of them, of Conventions designed to promote the disappear- ance of the slave trade. It is highly desirable that such Conventions should be concluded with as little delay as possible, and particularly that the special agreements provided for in that article should be concluded as soon as possible between the United Kingdom, Egypt, France and Italy, with a view to co-ordinating their efforts for the suppression of this evil.
The Committee has been concerned to ascertain whether warships could search vessels suspected of transporting slaves which sail under no flag or under a flag not recognised by the Powers concerned, and seize them if necessary. It is in the case of these vessels above all that the slave traffic by sea is to be feared, and it is against them therefore that severe action should be taken.
The Committee is not competent to discuss this delicate question, but expresses the earnest hope that it will be studied, and that the Powers will agree to put an end once for all to abuses which constitute so grave a violation of the rights of humanity.
In any case, it would seem that the Powers should undertake to proclaim severe penalties of a uniform character against the offence of maritime slave-trading when the vessel concerned carries their own flag.
The Powers might further accord to each other the right to pursue vessels suspected of mari- time slave-trading into each other's territorial waters in the region of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf off the coast of Arabia, provided always that the guilty persons are handed over for trial to the authorities of the country in whose waters the vessels are seized.
39. All Powers whose inhabitants contribute contingents to the pilgrimages to the holy places should further consider the possibility of adopting the measures taken by some Governments in the Far East or by France, as mentioned in paragraph 31 above.
40. In every case, it is essential that, when a slave who is destined for sale or who has been sold in Arabia is freed, an exhaustive enquiry should be instituted and the results communicated if necessary to the Government of the slave's country of origin, in order to discover the person responsible for the act of slave-trading and the ways and means employed by them. Apart from the punishment of the culprits, such investigations are calculated to furnish useful information for the prevention by the administration of further acts of this nature.
41. The 1925 report suggested the establishment on the western coast of the Red Sea, under the supervision of a local government, of a central depot, public or private, to which freed slaves would be sent in the first place, and from there forwarded to their country of origin.
The expediency of such a measure was contested in the Committee on the ground that the number of freed slaves sent back to Africa by the diplomatic or consular agents at Jeddah would be very small, while it would rarely happen that the nationality of the slaves could not be determined by the authorities of the port of disembarkation in African territory. The responsibility for sheltering those who, to the knowledge of the authorities of the port of disembarkation, are nationals of another Power would, moreover, be of short duration, as communications between the British, Egyptian, French, Netherlands and Italian authorities are frequent.
However, owing to their inability to give any information, freed slaves often remain for weeks in the ports, and the authorities have the greatest difficulty in disposing of them at all.
Failing statistics concerning the number of slaves freed at Jeddah and sent back to the African continent, the Committee is unable to express an opinion as to the expediency of the
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measures suggested by the Temporary Commission. It appears, however, from the documents that, since the Convention of 1926, 159 slaves were freed by the British Legation at Jeddah and sent to Port Sudan, where arrangements were made to give them satisfactory temporary shelter. It would perhaps be sufficient if the Powers in control of territories from which the slaves who have been freed originate would undertake to refund to whatever Power has sheltered and repatriated the individuals in question the costs of their upkeep and of sending them back to their country of origin, in order that they might be assured of the same benefits as would result from the establishment of a central depot. In the case of slaves who are natives of Abyssinia, the Abyssinian Government should in addition undertake to guarantee their freedom.
In the case of freed slaves whose country of origin cannot be determined, the authorities of the territory in which they have been disembarked will probably not refuse to assist them in settling for good in that territory. The same would apply to any slaves who do not wish to return to their country of origin.
42. In any case, the Committee shares the opinion of the 1924 Temporary Commission that it is desirable that any information which can be obtained regarding the origin of freed slaves and their transport by sea or land should be centralised as proposed in paragraphs 72 and 75 of the present report,
CHAPTER IV.
- Slave-Dealing (INCLUDING TRANSFER BY EXCHAnge, Sale, Gift, Inheritance,
OR OCCASIONAL SALE OF PERSONS PREVIOUSLY FREE).
A. Survey of the Situation.
43. The 1925 report of the Temporary Commission noted that these practices had practically disappeared in countries which had abolished the status of slavery. Since then, the situation has improved still further, as may be seen from paragraphs 2 to 6 of the report. Moreover, the civilising influence of the Governments on peoples among whom slavery still existed has made marked progress during the last few years.
44. While Abyssinia, as mentioned above, has not abolished the status of slavery, she has, by an Edict of March 31st, 1924, prohibited, on pain of judicial penalties, the transfer of slaves with or without payment, and accorded the right to be set free to any persons so transferred.
Among the many contingencies in which this edict gives slaves the right to manumission is the case of the death of their master. The 1924 Edict provided, however, that they should be bound to serve the heirs of the deceased for seven years as from the day of death. The Edict of July 15th, 1931, has done away with this latter obligation; and the 1924 Edict itself accorded the right to freedom on the day of the owner's death in the case of slaves captured before that edict. The Committee has no information regarding the application of these provisions.
45. While in Africa, by reason partly of the fact of the cessation of famines and partly of the improvement in the economic situation of the native peoples, parents no longer need to have recourse to the sale of their children in order to provide them with the means of subsistence, is it the same in China?
On this point, the material supplied or forwarded to the Committee has not enabled the latter to ascertain the exact situation. While it is certain that a large number of children, especially females-who, if they are not really adopted, are known as Mui Tsai are placed by their parents with other persons, generally in return for a money payment to the parents and the obli- gation to support the child, the nature of the contract and the rights which it confers on the person with whom the children are placed are not very clear. Some regard it as a real sale of the child. The lot of such children, they add, is particularly wretched, since apart from being neglected and overworked, which alone entails the cruellest bodily suffering, they are often, it would appear, victims of the depraved instincts of their employers, or of persons with whom the latter bring them into contact, and sometimes also of acts of revolting cruelty.
Although the information to hand is to the effect that there is no ill-treatment of the numerous "Mui Tsai "at Hong-Kong at any rate as a general practice on the part of the well-to-do Chinese population of Hong-Kong in whose service they are, the Government of Hong-Kong in February 1929 enacted an ordinance which prohibits the engagement of female servants for the use of whose services payment has been made to another person and likewise the employment as a paid servant of any person of the female sex under ten years of age. As regards contracts concluded previously, the order, inter alia, accords " Mui Tsai" the right to return, should they wish, to their parents, without the latter being obliged to refund the sum paid by the person to whom the Mui Tsai" was entrusted. There are other provisions designed to ensure the good treatment of Mui Tsai" during their period of service.
As regards China, these assertions, to the effect that a "Mui Tsai" is a female child who has been sold and who is as a rule ill-treated, were contested by the Chinese delegate in the Sixth Committee of the League Assembly in September 1931. This distinguished authority stated:
"Traffic in children does not exist in China, and indeed could not exist there in view of the Chinese traditions of filial piety and the well-known readiness of Chinese mothers to adopt other children in cases of disaster ".
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