318 COCOA 



CHAP. 



England sent a Commission to San Thome and Principe 

 to gain information about the way in which the 

 " servigals " were engaged and about the treatment on the 

 estates. This Commission considered that much im- 

 provement was necessary as regards contracting ; and 

 in 1908 and 1909 the cocoa manufacturer, William 

 A. Cadbury, made a journey through San Thome and 

 Principe to investigate the labour question. 



He considered that the state of affairs was un- 

 satisfactory, especially the details of contracting and 

 the opportunities for repatriation after expiration of the 

 contract. According to Mr. Cadbury, the Government 

 did not look carefully enough after the fulfilment of the 

 regulations. 



After many deliberations, which had no satisfactory 

 results, Mr. Cadbury, together with a group of other 

 important cocoa importers, formed the resolution to 

 boycott the cocoa of San Thome, expecting in this way 

 to induce the planters and the Government to improve 

 the methods of contracting and the conditions of 

 repatriation. 



It cannot be said that this action of the English 

 philanthropists has had much success. The San Thome 

 planters have not been inconvenienced by this boycott, 

 as their cocoa has simply gone to other markets, 

 especially to New York and Hamburg. 



The cultivation. At the present time new cocoa 

 plantations are nearly always established on virgin 

 land,' so that the first work to be done is clearing the 

 forest. As lianes or bush ropes are absent, this is not 

 such a hard work as in many other countries. The 

 shrubs are first cut down, and then the trees at about 

 0*80 m. (about 2^ feet) above the earth. Stumps are 

 never dug out, as they moulder away in two or three 

 years when the suckers are cut off twice or three times 

 a year. The useful wood is sawn into boards, the 

 worthless is used as fire-wood, or left to moulder in the 

 field. Formerly, big forest trees were left as shade trees, 

 but latterly this practice has been abandoned, and even 



