Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-07-06
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
By PAUL =. COLLINS.

useless, for life expectancy In the
Orient does not extend Is Il does here
and DR.. Osler was JUSTIFIED in his Al
legged 60.year limit, II he applied 1t to
the Orient. All such were declared
free by the British. without recon.
pensing the owners.
A real is a silver coin having an
exchange value somewhere between
and ~ cents. The highest price
paid for q Burmese slave. therefore,
could not have reached $14. while q
baby slave sold for about the Amer
lean price OF a Spring chicken.
The purchase of the 3,4s7 slaves
was completed recently when the
British visited all Burma villages
and called upon the owners of slaves
to produce them according to the
census taken the previous March,
ana receive their pay. At the same
time the slaves were permitted to
set up claims to private property
ACQUIRED during slavery, and the
claims were verified and allowed.
The Liberated were given their
choice between two kinds Of freedom
papers. II they agreed to stay in
Burma and work they were not to
repay the British treasury; II they
wanted to leave Burma they must
first earn enough to reimburse the
cost Of their purchase, though they
were given long terms for payment.
It was feared that there would Be IL
general exodus OF labor, out Of the
scenes of bondage, and this was the
means Of discouraging It. The total
cost was about $4,000 sterling, part
Of which win be regained.
Under the former rule OF the Ka-
chin kings, no Burmese could leave
Il
short, without q, royal permit. ana
lssuch permit was never given to &
| woman. which throws some light on
the trials Of Kipling's sailor who
found the Burmese girl ION the
Road to Mandalay" SO much sweet
er than the British maidens with
their '.beefy hands that he longed
to return to Mandalay.
4 II
The day has not vet arrived when
| IL may be said that the sun In his
daily rounds never again will fall
upon b slave. for slavery persists
among savages Of Africa and prob
ably In other regions.
Slavery has slowly melted away n
different European countries within
/ the last century. Prior TO the nine.
lteefth century there had never ap-
peared d serious movement 70 abolish
1t. 1t had existed since prehistoric
ltiInes. Even ants conquer other
i tribes of ants and compel them to
labor for the coflQuercfs, just as man
/ In various stages Of enlightenment has
done, whether to conquered tribes or
condemned criminals or debtors. In an.
Gent times, among the Jews, fathers
/ were permitted I'd sell their daugh.
tiers into slavery, creditors could sell
not only the debtors. but also their
wives and children, as slaves either
for definite period or. for life, ac-
cording to what would satisfy the
claims.
/ The British, began tire abolition 81
Il the slave trade iii 17I2. but ala not
\ arrive at actual emancipation until
1888, when E20, 900 900 was paid to re.
/ innburse the owners. Tt took nearly
another century to bring full aholi-
ton III her last colony Or provinces
Burma.
Slavery was aboiished BY France "A
l1S4S, by the Netherlands IN 1863 al
most simultaneous with Lincoln
Emancipation procIarnaficfi), by Bra.
/ I'll III 1883.
Russian serfdom organized II the
j sixteenth century persisted until
alexander II abolished Il ii 1851, but
leven thereafter the actual labor con.
4 troll was equivalent to slavery until
i the bolsfleVik revolution ana how
Imuch freer are the pea SAINTS today "
ccp9zishs 1870. M Rkrl N colnna.l