In July, 1909, an exhaustive series of regulations were issued from Lisbon. The 139 articles covered almost every actual and conceivable feature of the whole labour question, but as Mr. Consul Mackie pointedly remarked—
“The Angolan native ... is contracted in a wild state under circumstances of doubtful legality, and is so convinced that he is a slave that nothing short of repatriation, which should therefore be compulsory, would serve to persuade him that, at least in the eyes of the law, he is a free agent. It would obviously be useless to argue that the ‘serviçal’ is not a slave merely because he is provided with a legal contract, renewable at the option of his employer, in which he is officially proclaimed to be free.”
The evidence, therefore, that the Portuguese colonial labour systems are pure slavery is confirmed (a) In a British Law Court, (b) by the British Foreign Minister, (c) by the British Consul on the spot, and (d) by Sir Arthur Hardinge. Could anyone desire more emphatic evidence than is now provided? and this does not exhaust the available sources, for even the Portuguese themselves have now been forced to admit that the slave-trade is very much in evidence.
Writing to Sir Arthur Hardinge on October 23rd last, the Portuguese Foreign Minister admitted that there was—
“Slave-traffic with the inhabitants with Luando, in the district of Lunda.... It was ascertained that in reality the Bihean natives were in the habit of settling their debts and disputes by means of ‘serviçaes.’ Two convoys proceeding from Luando were captured, and the serviçaes handed over to the delegate of the Curator concerned, to be retained until claimed by their relatives, to whom the necessary notice was sent.”
It is instructive to note that the Portuguese Minister in this passage makes no distinction between serviçaes and slaves, yet when unofficial critics declare that in practice the terms are indistinguishable, they are condemned for deliberately confusing the public mind. It is also of importance to bear in mind that the Lunda Province is included in the territories which come under the operations of the Berlin Act, whereby every European Power is under the most solemn responsibility to secure throughout these territories the abolition of slavery.
PORTUGUESE OFFICIAL ADMISSION
There is further the evidence, from a Portuguese source, in the fact that in 1911 eleven Portuguese are reported to have been expelled for engaging in the slave-traffic. The Governor of Angola informed Mr. Drummond Hay that nothing severer than the order of expulsion was administered owing to the lack of “conclusive evidence,” but four months later the Portuguese Foreign Minister admitted that the Europeans “by the inquiry were found guilty of acts of slave-traffic.” Sir Arthur Hardinge pointed out that
“the 5th article of the Brussels General Act contemplated severer penalties in the case of persons engaging in the slave-trade than an order of expulsion before trial or a prohibition to return to the colony, which such persons, if convicted of a serious criminal offence there, would hardly need.”
When, therefore, the long stream of unofficial testimony upon the existence of the slave-trade and slavery in the Portuguese colonies is confirmed in turn by the British Minister at Lisbon and by the British Consul of Angola, and moreover when Sir Edward Grey, who always chooses language with exceptional care, officially informs civilization that the charges are proved “beyond doubt,” and finally when the Portuguese authorities are driven to admit it, then surely the time has come to cease gathering evidence and to set about some substantial and far-reaching measures of reform.