The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1924-01-11

! Pemba. There are no evangelical
churches and no active temperance
work of Christian character that
can learn OF after two weeks sojourn
on the island.
On the other hand, this prohibition
decree was brought about through the
efforts of the Christian commune
ties. chiefly the Hindus and Moham-
medans. The National Indian Asso-
citation stirred the matter up and they
were supported by the Arabs, partic-
ularly by Yusufali Esmailjee Jivanjee
a prominent Arab and unofficial MEM
Der of the Protectorate Council. The
British Resident for the time being,
Mr.. John H. Sinclair, was quite willing
to accommodate the Moslems and
Hindus provided the various classes
of Christians were exempted from the
operations OF the dry law.
The first decree squirting toward
prohibition was that of 1912 This
expressly forbade the manufacture OF
any sort of Intoxicating liquor and
also forbade the selling to natives.
By natives" was meant Africans or
Swahils. But these were practically
all Moslems who did not drink any
how, at least in theory and most of
them faithful to their creed.
During the period of the Great War,
there was some growing demoraliza
ton on the part of the young Mos
lens and Indians which disturbed the
elders of that element. This led to
the demand to extend the prohibition
to natives" to include all classes in
which they were interested. Accord
ngly, the decree of 1922, described
above was promulgated.
Like all DEGREES of His Highness
Seyyid Khalifa Harub, the Sultan, this
decree is issued in the Name of the
Most Merciful God" but so far as the
law is concerned, God is not requested
to be merciful to anybody except non
Christians.
Mr.. Yusufali, the chief promoter OF
the project in the inner official cir
cles tells me that the Moslems and
Hindus became alarmed because so
many of their young men were being
demora1ized by the liquor traffic and
that it was chiefly to protect them
from the drink that the matter was
stirred up. So for more than a year,
the drink traffic has been forbidden as
to approximately 100000 OF the 203,-
900 people in the country.
The result isathat, outside the Eu-
ropean hotels and few bars in the
parts of the city frequented by Euro
peans, there are no drinking places at
all. In the Swahili part OF the city,
called Ngambo, across the Darajini
bridge, where half the total population
reside and where there are no Chris
tians" with a thirst, there are no drink
ing places at all. | could not locate
one even with the aid of a native guide.
But around the hotel bars, the white
people, who are commonly referred to
as Christians" swarmed like a lot of
flies around garbage can, many of
them in various stages of semi-intoxi
cation.
Become Christians if Booze is Desired
The young Swahii who served me
from time to time as guide through
the endless maze OF alleys that serve
as streets, was a young Moslem,
Omur bin Jumv. There are a couple
other licensed guides, Jimmie Johnson
and George Washington, but / was
afraid of them because of their Yankee
names. Omuru bin Jumv explained
to me that there was very little"
drinking except among the Christians
and that most of them drank. He
solemnly explained to me that any
body who wanted to drink could best
get his liquor by being baptized as a