Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-11-26
ETHIOPIA, THE LAST
OUTPOST OF SLAVERY
League of Nations Refuses to Ad-
nit State Because of It.

"Abyssinia, whose formal applica-
ton for admission to the League of
Nations has not been acted upon by
that body because of the prevalence
of slavery in the country. is the
only free and independent state in
the whole of Africa except Egypt
and LIBERIA" according to a bulletin
of the National Geographic Society
issued today from its Washington, ID.
c., headquarters.
ut seems paradoxical, too, that
one of the three free states in Africa
lying in the protruding portion of
the eastern part of the continent,
slavery.
"One traveller through the coun-
try said that he believed there were
more slaves in its capital Adds
Ababa, than there were freemen.
Servants of Europeans living in the
country have their own slaves, and
sometimes it is impossible for
Americans or other foreigners to
keep from owning slaves, because
If a slave happens to be given to
resident of the country, there is no
known method by which he may be
emancipated. If he is set free he is
subject to capture and enslavement
by someone else.
"In fact, so many of the people of
the outlying districts have been cap
tured, chained together and taken in
droves into the great slave market
at Jimma, that 1t Is possible to
march for mile after mile, day after
day, through once flourishing agri-
cultural district without seeing a
man, woman, or child. Recently 1t
has been reported that the traders
are beginning, for lack of people
in their own country, to make raids
into the neighboring Kenya colony,
the British Sudan, and elsewhere
for their quarries.
Few countries show such mark
ed change during a short period OF
ten years as Abyssinia has since the
death of it's grand old man. Men
elk, who was so pfogressive in his
ideas that Italy gave his country the
ancient empire of Ethiopia-its in
dependence. To swear by Menelik'
is today the most binding oath a
native can take.
"In his time a child might drive
a COW from the confines of the city
to a remote corner of the kingdom
without being molested, but today
that same child, grown to manhood,
might be snatched up before he had
proceeded very far on his journey
and sold into slavery in some dis
tant city.
"The old king, during his reign of
a quarter of a century, built up his
capital city, laid out metaled roads
and railway lines, installed tele-
phones, and promoted banking.
schools, sanitation, a water supply,
hospitals, and definite system of
law and order. Today his railroad
is under French management and
depends upon the French for the
financial backing, the streets are ne
elected, and even the foreign lega-
tions have to be barricaded to keep
out the brigands.
"Abyssinia also enjoys a peculiar
distinction among the native states
of the continent-since the fourth
century, it has been known as
Christian nation. Meneliks vain
and arrogant successor bound a gor-
geous Moslem turban around his
woolly head, however, and turned
the faces of his people toward
Mecca, in order that he might salts
fy his desire for a harem. But when
he was deposed in 1916 and daugh-
ter of Menelik, Waizeru Zauditu,
and Ras Taffari were proclaimed
rulers the historic faith was re-
stored.
1.-THE tactful individual who wishes
to get himself into the good graces
of the natives always remembers
that he must speak of them as Ethi-
opians, for the term Abyssinian
means 'mongrel and probably came
into usage originally because it is
hardly possible to find on the earth
so mixed population, ranging from
certain light-skinned individuals or
Mediterranean stock, through mulat-
to, and duslxy skinned Arab, to 'hlgh
yellow" gingerbread and the true
lacks.
1.-THE Ethiopians speak of Euro.
peans as the Red Faces, Many OF
them are particularly fond of raw
neat, and the warmer and fresher
the kill the better they like it