The report of the Select Committee appointed to inquire into
the Putumayo atrocities was issued on Monday. The com-
mittee find no evidence which would expose the British directors to a charge under the Slave Trade Acts. But they cannot acquit them of culpable negligence as to the labour couditious which prevailed in the district worked by their company. The British directors were " dominated by Arena," and, in particular, Sir John Lister-Kaye is held to be worthy of censure for taking a directorship under conditions which were humiliating to himself. He had no knowledge of the country or of the trade in which his company was engaged, and " he did not know the language in which the proceedings of the board of which he was a member were frequently conducted." The committee also find that the directors did not act speedily enough when their attention was called to the atrocities, and add that the Putumayo case is only a shockingly bad instance of conditions liable to he found over a wide area in South America. The Anti-Slavery Society may well be proud of their achievement. But for their action the con- science of the nation would never have been awakened to the hideous crimes recorded and condemned in the Report.
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