SLAVE LABOUR ? 27 



leaves the cocoa, islnnds must return lo his colony 

 with at least CIO in cash, even il." lie has been 

 repatriated without having done any work at all. 

 That is the law of the land, but, needless to say, 

 most natives come back to Angola with far more 

 money than this. 



On the other hand, I have been told from un- 

 prejudiced sources that these repatriated labourers 

 complain that they arc not paid in money, but in 

 kind, in cloth or other trade goods. It should be 

 easy for the Government of Angola to refute this, 

 or if true, remedy it. It is also said that some of 

 the labour that goes to San Thome consists of 

 people who have refused to work or pay taxes in 

 the colony. This is difficult to reconcile with the 

 constantly repeated declarations of the Angolan 

 authorities, that all cocoa labour is free ; and 

 personally, I have no reason to doubt the state- 

 ment of the Portuguese Government officials. 



That section of the Angolan press which 

 attacks to-day in violent language the indentured 

 labour of these islands, is undoubtedly interested 

 in the retention of all native labour in Angola. 

 The higher pay of the island cocoa plantations 

 not only induces the Angolan native to go there, 

 but the competition raises his price, already high, 

 in the Angolan market. Every native lost from 

 Angola to the cocoa islands is an economic loss to 

 the colony, and Angola needs every man of her 

 very limited native population for her own economic 

 development. 



While one can. have every sympathy with the 

 reasons that prompt the Portuguese Angolan 



