122 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



had become subject to Arab domination, slavery was general for nearly 

 all labour purposes. We have suppressed slavery and regularised the 

 amount of compulsory labour which may be performed for chiefs or 

 Government, and prohibited the employment of forced labour for purposes 

 of private gain. That such drastic changes in the customs of the continent 

 have already produced great economic and social changes — in this case 

 for the better — must be obvious. 



Nevertheless the labour problem in Tropical Africa is a most important 

 one. As I have already stated, there is a far greater demand for labour 

 than supply. There is no unemployed problem such as we have in Great 

 Britain. On the other hand, there is not the same necessity for the Africaa 

 native to work as there is for the European. In Africa nature is bountiful, 

 and food can usually be easily and cheaply obtained. The climate is. 

 such that the cost of housing and of such clothing as may be required is 

 comparatively insignificant. The wants of the ordinary African in his 

 present stage of development are few, and therefore the incentives to 

 effort are far less insistent than in temperate climates and more civilised 

 conditions. 



In the old Africa — especially Bantu Africa — a young man's life was 

 very largely taken up by fighting, with the preparation for fighting, and 

 with hunting the wild game. Now that tribal warfare has ceased there 

 is a real danger that deterioration will set in unless the energies formerly 

 expended upon fighting are diverted to honest toil. To allow the manhood 

 of a race to remain dependent on the labour of its women-folk is bound to 

 result in national decay. I see nothing wrong in encouraging the African 

 to work either as a direct producer or as a wage-labourer. In fact, his 

 advance in the scale of civilisation is bound up with his economic advance 

 as a producer. Nevertheless it is our duty to ensure that such a new 

 development is made consistent with the lessons of experience concerning the 

 welfare of labour and the best relations between employer and employed. 

 A good deal of discussion is going on just now regarding the treatment 

 of native labour engaged on capitalistic enterprise in the development of 

 the continent. In Tropical Africa the Governments, notably the Railways 

 and Public Works Departments, are by far the largest employers of African 

 labour, and they set the standards. Then there is the wage-labour engaged 

 in the mining industries and upon the farms of European and Asiatic 

 settlers in East Africa, and on the larger native farms in parts of West 

 Africa and in Uganda. 



In the past year there have been published two very important reports 

 dealing with this problem. The first is the ' Rapport de la Commission 

 pour I'etude du probleme de la main-d'oeuvre au Congo Beige,' issued 

 by the Government of the Belgian Congo in 1925 ; and the second is the 

 report by Major G. Orde Browne, Senior Commissioner of Tanganyika 

 Territory, on labour in that country, issued last month by H.M. Stationery 

 Ofiice as Colonial Paper No. 19 of 1926. The last named is the most 

 interesting and objective study that has yet been made by an experienced 

 British native administrator on this subject. It touches upon almost 

 every aspect of the question. It reveals great diversities of practice, and 

 Major Orde Browne's observations on the data which he has collected 

 are of the highest value. 



