Evening star., 1937-10-10
Persistence of Slavery
i'm the World
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

observers and students Of world affairs
who were dubious concerning the effec-
tiveness Of the organization in putting
down warfare or in regulating economic
affairs in such manner that peace
would smile upon the nations. There
were others, however. who did feel that
the League would prove an excellent
medium for the correction of numerous
evils which nations individually had not
successfully coped with.
There were such matters as the mar.
cotic drug trade. the white slave traffic.
and, notably, the institution of human
slavery. The League has done many
things in its efforts to better conditions
in these fields. but it generally is recog-
nlzed that its chief contribution has
been the gathering of information about
evils rather than their suppression. The
League has committee which devotes
itself to the question of slavery. 1t meets
periodically and it issues reports con-
tanning information which its agents
have gathered. To world which, in
latter years. has come to think of human
slavery as something belonging to the
past. these reports are not less than
startling.
knowledge of the holding of slaves
and of slave trading in Ethiopia was
fairly widespread even before the Italian
conquest of the kingdom. During the
invasion. the Italians said much to JUS
tify their action to the effect that one of
their objectives was the stamping out of
slavery. The fact which the League now
discovers is that Italian occupation has
made but little difference although it is
freely admitted that efforts have been
made. The Italian authorities have Or
ganized some of the most dramatic man
hunts in the world. They are hunts for
slavers conducted by airplane.
The old slave routes from the Sudan
borders and the old slave markets and
slave prisons, where captives were held
awaiting sale, had become fairly we'll
known to the Italians and airplane
raids were organized against the slave
raiders and their strongholdS and mar
kets. These have met with some sue
cess, but that success is said not to
have been sufficient to do any more than
make dent in the institution of slavery.
The Ethioplans have held slaves from
time irnmemorial. They have raided
over the Sudan borders for as many GEN.
turies as they have been there They
have maintained their slave markets.
Two broad hereditary classes, then, ex-
iSt-the slave-holding class and the
slave-raiding and trading class.
For generations they have known no
other way of life and are more bewil-
dered than anything else by efforts of
the Italians or any one else to interfere.
Because of the nature of the Ethiopian
terrain, because of the familiarity of the
natives with mountain pass and plain,
and because of the relative ignorance
OF the Italians, eradication has been
practically impossible.
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The Emperor Halle Selassie wears ago
issued edicts against slave raiding, trad
ing and the ownership of slaves, but he
was well aware that he must proceed
slowly in efforts at eradication of the
system. His writ did not run far into
the wilderness Businesses held by his
provincial cilieftains. To press the mat
ter too hard might we'll cost him his
throne. There is something ironic about
the fact that he has lost his throne be-
cause of the invasion of force bent on
suppression of slavery but no more sue
cessful than he.
Ibn Saud. King of Saudi Arabia, has
issued DEGREES against slavery, too, but.
ike Selassie, has been aware that he
cannot press too hard and too suddenly
against an age-old system. Arabia is
regarded as the center of the modern
slave trade. Arabian dhows constantly
elude the British and French sea pa
trolls and reach the cost from the African
slave coast, landing cargoes of captives
10 sell into slavery. Let no one. says the
League OF Nations committee, think that
the scenes described in the Arabian
Nlgnts Iales appertain to past period.
Today there are publicly held slave mar
Kets. They are not secret affairs. They
are publlcized to draw trade Those de-
voted to the sale of beautiful women at
tract the most attention. but there also
are eunuch markets. Male infants of
Save women are converted into eunuchs
at early ages and. upon reaching matur-
lty, are placed on the market as house
and harem servants. This is not fanci-
ful travellers tale. but comes officially
from the League of Nations committee.
Arabia has curious law about the
importation of slaves. 1t forbids chow
ever Intellectually the importation of
captives intended to be sold into slavery.
But person entering the country is
free to bring with him slaves he has ac-
CURED elsewhere and already owns. It
Is estimated that in Arabia today there
are 100000 slaves and that the number
probably is neither increasing nor
diminishing.
In China. the League finds. there are
some 1000 600 slaves, all of them girls
and women. From time to time the gov
ernments of various provinces have at
tempted to suppress the institution but
no material headway has been made.
The institution has been in effect for so
many centuries that it cannot be abol-
lshed in a generation. 1t is the general
view that the Chinese slave girls, sold bv
their parents, are better off than they
would have been had they remained
1ree. Where a country is so tremend-
ously overpopulated and where poverty
Is so severe, the Chinese girl who looks
we'll enough to find a buyer is consid-
cred as fortunate
AS in the United States before the
Civil War, there are doubtless cases of
i'll treatment of slaves by their owners
in China and in the other slave-holdine
countries. Such cases can usually be
considered greatly in the minority. AS
it is the exception rather than the rule
to IND an owner who mistreats horse or
dog, so is 1t the exception to find mis-
treatment of slaves.
1t is believed there still are slaves In
India especially over in the NepoI .nd