96. Dr. CHAPPLEasked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has been drawn to the fact that the Foreign Office have received reports upon widespread and growing slave-trading in Abyssinia; whether the Colonial Office has also received from Colonial officials reports of a similar nature; and whether these have been, or will be, passed to the Foreign Office for transmission to the Council of the League of Nations?
Mr. McNEILLVarious kinds of domestic and agricultural serfdom exist in a legalised form through Abyssinia, but no reports have been received at the Foreign Office as to growing slave-trading. The internal affairs of Abyssinia cannot normally form the subject of reports from British Colonial officials, but the hon. Member possibly has in mind the slave raising in British territory which formerly occurred near the Abyssinian frontier. The Secretary of State for the Colonies asked for a report on this practice last year, and was informed in reply that Abyssinian raids into British territory were undertaken primarily for the capture of stock and game. In a few instances women and children had been carried off. A garrison having, however, been established on the part of the frontier affected, such raids must by now have ceased. According to reports from His Majesty's Representative at Adis Ababa, the delimitation of the frontiers has necessarily led for many years past to a decline in the slave trade. It is not considered that any useful purpose would be served by the communication of these reports to the Council of the League of Nations.
Mr. McNEILLThere was a capture by one of His Majesty's ships in the Red Sea not very long ago. Of course any trade of that sort is subject to the very closest supervision we can give to it. That is a different matter from the one that appears in the question.