Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-14
Continued From First Page.)

supreme, his word law Actually he is
much in the position of King John Of
England. His kingdom Is feudal one.
| mote from the capital and jealous of
their hereditary rights and privileges.
| They conform to custom rather than
| to the crown.
Only when traditions come in con-
| fiict would they hesitate as to what
course to pursue. Ras Taffari might
order one of them put to death without
| trial and 1t would be done without
rancor, for such things have been done
before. To try to enforce an anti
slavery law upon them would be quite
a different matter. The tradition of
| loyalty to the crown would come In con-
flict then with the tradition Of slavery,
with self-interest strengthening the
latter.
For centuries the slave trade has been
the perquisite of certain noble families.
Its sudden abolition would touch their
pride as well as their purse; the former
is the Abyssinians tenderest spot.
Turbulent Land. Living in Past.
It is a turbulent, unruly, anachronis-
tic land, which lives wholly in the past
in the Western reaches which border
upon absolute wilderness and Is threat
ened constantly upon the East by the
encroachmentS of civilization. West
ward from the capital it is land with
out any modern means OF communica-
ton, land cut by unbridged rivers,
land of fierce tribeSmen, whose chief
tainS the ruler may dominate only in
accordance with tradition.
So the slave dhowS still slip across the
Red Sea from this land whose monarch
seeks to placate at the same time the
powers constituting the League of Ma
tons and the petty potentates whose
loyalty alone renders his throne secure,
and African slaves still are sold in the
markets of Arabia.
The proclamation with which RaS
Taffari sought to impress upon his sub
| jects the gravity of the offense Of slave
holding named death as the penalty,
but it is not of record that the penalty
ever has been imposed, though it is
estimated that about one in five of the
population of Abyssinia is slave. In
fairness to Abyssinia, however, one
should distinguish between slaveholding
there, which is very similar to that
which still exists over much of Africa,
and the vicious sale and expectation of
| slaves. Also, most of the men behind
the slave business in Abyssinia are
whites.
British Officer Tells of Sale.
A British officer of the Kanya Colony,
reporting in 1926, within few months
after the issuance of the anti-slavery
edict, tells of encountering woman of
rank of AbySSinia who had bought two
| female slaves for $45 each a few days
before. 1t would have been useless, he
said, to tax her with the act, for she
would have replied that she merely had
paid their former employer a bounty to
release them and that she intended to
pay them wages.
For years the Kanya Colony has been
under great expense because of slave
hunting expeditions from Abyssinia,
but within the last two or three years
these are said to have fallen off greatly
Gradually, it is said, the Abyssinian
slave business is shrinking. Some two
or three thousand slaves actually have
been freed.
However, in the district of which
Abyssinia may be considered a part.
which embraces both shores of the Red
Sea and a good part of Northern Cen
trail and Eastern Africa, it was eStimat-
ed in 1926 that 10000 human beings
were traded each year.
| Many of them are Moslem blacks
| from the interior OF Africa, and they
| may leave their homes nominally free,
though held in a kind of feudal serf-
dom, in the train of their master on a
pilgrimage to Mecca. The expenses
Of the trip, however, may exceed the
estimate of their master, and in order
to return to his home in proper style
he may be compelled to sell some of
his retainers.
Naval Problem Is Difficult.
The frequency of such pilgrimages
adds to the difficulty of naval forces in
the Red Sea, as it is exceedingly diff
cult to tell offhand whether dhow is
carrying Moslems bound for their shrine
or cargo of slaves bound for the
markets of Arabia. Interferences with
a band of pilgrims is something to be
avoided.