SIERRA LEONE. (Hansard, 16 May 1899)

* LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEY
My Lords, I desire to call the attention of the House to the state of affairs in Sierra Leone or West Africa; and to ask what are the steps to restore order which the Secretary of State contemplates taking. With regard to the troubles in Sierra Leone, the first I heard of them was through the complaints of the head of a Manchester house doing a large trade with West Africa, I was told that he represented Mr. Chamberlain asdestroying the trade of West Africa. The Aborigines' journal of February last contains this extract from the letter of a leading Liverpool merchant:— What can we do to put a slop to the shooting and hanging of these natives of Sierra Leone? It is a terrible business all round. Not only there, but in the Oil Rivers and up the Niger the conversion of the negro by means of lead is going on merrily, and so it will do. I fear, whilst the military rulers have the power in their hands unchecked, and every incentive in the; shape of pay, honour, and promotion to cause them to get up wars by which they may attract public notice. We want the whole system of government altering. The same journal describes these troops as "recruited from escaped and liberated slaves of defeated chiefs," and from "war-boys" no longer able to gratify 718 their savage inclinations in their old ways. Allegations are also made against the men and their officers that they compel aborigines with kicks and blows to carry their goods without wages, and that they abduct their daughters and ravish their wives. Here we have a repetition or revival of Kirke's Lambs, and they are being brought into this country. On Monday, the 8th, Crewe Station was swarming with West African negro troops going South from Liverpool, and the noble Earl the Under Secretary of State's reason for absence from London last Sunday and the days before and after was that he was training troops. Were these West Africans among them? And are they to lie named his or Mr. Chamberlain's Lambs? I hope he will have the Paschal lamb restored to their regimental Hag, so as to inculcate greater suavity than they are now manifesting in Sierra Leone. In January, 1898, an arbitrary demand was made for a hut tax m the way of rent, and by a Protectorate ordinance a claim was made of absolute ownership by the Crown of all the land of the country—outside the colony—with which we had treaties recognising the independence of the people, and obtaining only trading opportunities. The remonstrance of the Aborigines Secretary of October 10th, 1898, was in vain, and on the 24th Mr. Chamberlain sent a curt answer, saying that steps would be taken during the dry season to restore order in all parts of the Protectorate. One can readily imagine Mr. Chamberlain, whilst dictating that answer, chuckling and murmuring:— A fico for the world and Quakers base, I speak of Africa and golden joys. The Aborigines Protection Society contains many Quakers, but the golden joys the Secretary of State thinks of are a full treasury from a usurped hut tax. The noble Earl the Under-Secretary of State, has, however, fully assimilated and adopted this spurious Imperialism of grasping new territories, whilst neglecting old, well-established and loyal colonies, for in his speech at Glasgow University on the 3rd May he again endeavoured to make the worse appear the better reasons for seizing on what he called unappropriated portions of the earth; and he sought for support in a recent speech of Lord lord Rosebery's, forgetting that it blamed extremes, such as the policy followed in Sierra Leone, and the disregard of Australian interests shown in the 719 duties on Australian wines. The noble Lord thinks ho has found a material justification for a usurpation of sovereignty and Crown rights over land in the needs of manufacturers for new markets; let him read Mr. Frederick Greenwood's article in the Nineteenth Century of April on the neglect by manufacturers of the markets they already possess. The argument that a commercial nation must die if it had not trade on which to live did not justify the enslaving of negroes hitherto free. There is one point upon which the noble Earl and myself are quite agreed, and that is in objecting to tinkering the Prayer-book. If the Commutation Service had not been set aside, the noble Earl would have been reminded that "cursed is he who removeth his neighbour's landmark"; a denunciation which applies as much to Governments as to individuals. The noble Earl went on to found what he called a moral justification for taking these now lands, in that Their aim was to bring to them the blessings of liberty, of law, of peace and of civilisation. How can such an assertion be made in the face of the Sierra Leone Press, and the publications of the Aborigines Protection Society, which have not been contradicted or disproved by the Colonial Office. It seems to mo to be a cause for regret that the noble Earl is endangering the consistency of his character by continual advocacy of the Colonial Office acts and policy. For instance, his speeches in the Laymen's House of Convocation show that he goes as far as my noble friend Lord Halifax in his opinion of the incompetency of the Judicial Committee in spiritual matters, and I agree with them on that point.

§ THE EARL OF SELBORNE
I have never mentioned the subject.

§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY
I think my noble friend is travelling outside the borders of his Notice.

LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEY
In a short time the noble Earl will be placed in a dilemma, should the Government persist in refusing to the clergy the relief as to rates given to other owners of land. If the noble Earl elects to retain the Under-Secretary ship in that contingency, it is only fair that I should give him notice 720 that I shall contest with him the next election for the chairmanship of the Church Defence Committee.

§ THE UNDE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (the Earl of SELBORNE)
My Lords, the noble Lord's question was, to ask what steps Her Majesty's Government were going to take to restore order in Sierra Leone. My answer to the noble Lord is that order is completely restored in Sierra, Leone. If the noble Lord wished to have a general debate on the subject of the recent disturbances I would suggest that he should wait until the Blue Book is published. The noble Lord has made a reflection on the action of the officers and men in the service of Her Majesty in the colony. Under circumstances of great climatic difficulties, of complete isolation in many cases, and in dealing with absolutely savage tribes, on the whole the officers who go out from this country show marvellous patience, great tact, and great humanity; and I repudiate altogether the reflections which the noble Lord has passed on their conduct. As regards the bloodshed in Sierra Leone, no one has been executed who was not tried by a judge sent out from this country and convicted of actual cold-blooded murder. With regard to the allegations that the Crown had provoked disturbances by claiming all the land in Sierra Leone, there is not the slightest shadow of a foundation for any such statement.