We fully appreciate the difficulty of Sir Edward's position, and
sympathise with him in his evident feeling that it is -useless for the British Government to bark unless they are prepared to bite. At the same time, we cannot help wishing that he had been able to show, what we are sure he must feel, a somewhat stronger sense of indignation in regard to the horrors of the slave-raiding and slave-trading on the mainland, which is distinctly the most infamous part of this infamous Sy te m We publish with great satisfaetion in our issue of to-day a letter from the English agent of the eminent firm of Suchard pointing out that they have for some time ceased to use slave-grown cocoa, and also a letter from a correspondent stating that the Co-operative Wholesale Society have placed a ban upon slave-grown cocoa. We cannot doubt that other cocoa firms in this country who have not already done so will soon see their way to follow suit, and that the public reproba- tion. of slavery, thus enforced by definite and direct action, will have the effect of putting an end to the abominable system of labour which now prevails in the islands,—a system which is the direct cause of slave-raiding and slave-trading on the mainland. Trustworthy information shows that there is nothing to prevent the introduction of properly paid free labour in the place of slavery on the cocoa plantations.
Previous page
