524 



The Review of Re\ie\vs. 



THE SHAM YELLOW PERIL. AND THE REAL. 



In the Niiicti-iiith Century and After for May Mr. 

 J. O. P. Bland holds up to ridicule the yellow peril 

 iiogey as it appears to the imagination of tiie Western 

 world. The idea of a disciplined army of two million 

 Chinese marching through the world is, he declares, a 

 mere illusion. The Chinese have an instinctive 

 aversion to fighting for fighting's sake. A Hunanese 

 private declared that the profession of arms was well 

 enough in times of peace, but no sensible man would 

 incur serious risks of being killed on a salary of fifteen 

 shillings a month. The writer remarks : — 



A new spirit has been aroused, beyond all question, amongst 

 the educated classes of China ; a spirit of vigorous, ahnost 

 defiant nationalism, which chafes under China's humiliations ; 

 which seeks, through political and social reforms, to put from 

 her the reproach of weakness; l)Ut, in the absence of an 

 organised, self-respecting, and productive middle-class, there 

 can be no immediate prospect of Iheir attaining the height of 

 their ambitions or the fulfilment of their dreams. Intellectual 

 activity of no mean order is theirs, and many good qualities ; 

 but the moving spirits of the present unrest have failed collec- 

 tively to display the discipline, constructive ability, and 

 personal integrity requisite for efficient organisation of the 

 body politic. 



Having laughed out of court one yellow bogey, the 

 writer promptly presents two real and terrible dangers. 

 He says : — • 



In the present ferment of iconoclasm, and all its resultant 

 lawlessness, lies the real Yellow Peril— for a weak and dis- 

 organised China means the danger of chronic unrest in the 

 Kar East. 



Another, and equally real, Yellow Peril lies in the pressure 

 which these millions of thrifty, patient toilers, inured to the 

 sternest privations, threaten, sooner or later, to bring to bear 

 upon the economic and industrial equilibrium of the Western 

 world. Throughout their long history the Chinese have seldom 

 been obse;scd by dreams of expansion and conquest, but they 

 have repeatedly denationalised and overcome their conquerors. 

 Their ready adaptability to environment, untiring industry, 

 skilled craftsmanship, and unconquerable power of passive 

 resistance have never been equalled by any race of men, unless 

 it be the Hebrews. America and Australia have felt, and 

 guarded themselves against, the menace of this pressure of 

 seething humanity. 



PORTUGUESE SLAVERY. 



Rev. J. H. Harris, who has just returned from a 

 journey of over five thousand miles in the most 

 barbarous and savage territory of West Central 

 Africa, writes in the Contpnporary Rcriie^v on Portu- 

 guese slavery. He says that, thanks to the feeling 

 akin to reverential awe with which the world, civilised 

 and uncivilised, regards Pritish courts of justice, the 

 Cadbury and StnnJarit trial convinced the world that 

 the Portuguese planters stood convicted on the charge 

 of maintaining slavery in West Africa. 



40,000 WELL-FED, WELL-HOUSED, nUT SLAVES. 



Mr. Harris says that San Thome and Principe are two 

 mountainous islands ninety miles apart, in the Gulf of 

 Guinea, with an area of about 350 srniaro miles, '{'he 



total output for the year 191 1 is approximately two 

 millions sterling. The labour now imported from 

 Cabenda, Cape Verde and Mozambique is, so far as 

 contract labour goes, fairly recruited and honestly 

 treated las free labour. At present, however, there 

 are on the island anything from thirty-eight thousand 

 to forty-five thousand slaves. The ordinary labour of 

 the slave is not arduous. It is the monotonous con- 

 tinuity of it which renders it repugnant to the liberty- 

 loving African. Food supplies appear to be ample, 

 and the housing of the labourers is good. Never- 

 theless, the melancholy demeanour of the slaves, and 

 the insistent desire for liberty, their low birthrate, and 

 the frightful mortality amongst them, remain. Mr. 

 Harris transcribes from his diary many statements of 

 the negroes to show that they are frequently flogged 

 and beaten with a long stout cane. 



Since Portugal has been republican slaves have 

 been given five crowns a month. 



FREE LABOUR CHEATER THAN SLAVE LABOUR. 



It is admitted by most planters that the respective 

 working values of the Angola slaves and free 

 Mozambique labourers is in the proportion of not less 

 than two to three, with a relative cost of 42s. and 50s. 

 per month. Hence, 400 free labourers at 50s. a 

 month would cost only ^12,000, and do the same 

 work as 600 slave labourers at 42s. a month, which 

 would cost ^15,120. The annual saving on employ- 

 ment of free labour would be ^3,120. Mr. Harris 

 proceeds : — 



If it be ethically right and economically advantageous to 

 liberate the slaves and employ free labour, how conies it that 

 the planters still maintain such a firm grip of their slaves ? For 

 this there are sever.il reasons, primarily the unstable political 

 conditions in Portugal inspire the Royalist planters of the 

 islands with a hope that a Government less critical of Colonial 

 abuses may soon return to power in Lisbon. A less vigilant 

 Government would undoubtedly leave the door open to a 

 cheapening of the cost of Labour. Next in importance is the 

 undoubted fact that a large and continuous recruitment of 

 Mozimbique labour is l-,ound, sooner or later, to come into ] 

 competition with the Transvaal recruiting agencies ; left to fight 

 that contest unaided by .administrative intervention gold will 

 easily outbid cocoa. 



DEATH OR LIBERTY FOR 20, COO, WHICH? 



Mr. Harris, speaking to four young slaves, told < 

 them that there were liberty-loving people in Europe, 

 in whose name he promised them that within two 

 years they should be free. Mr. Harris earnestly 

 presses for the fulfilment of his promise. He says 

 that within the next five years 20,000 will have 

 succumbed if they are not liberated : — 



Porlug.al must be asked to liberate and then repatriate the 

 slaves— Great Britain lan help her so lo do. If, however. 

 Portugal refuses friendly advice and disinterested offers ol 

 assista'ncc, justice demands thai her African colonics be aban- 

 doned to an impending fate. 



