§ Mr. MANDERasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what Reports have been received recently from British Consuls in Portuguese possessions in West Africa as to the conditions of labour in the cocoa plantations and the recruitment thereof; how many consuls are now there compared with 1914, and what progress has been made towards the abolition of slavery and contract labour; and whether there is reason to think there has been any improvement since 1914?
Mr. A. HENDERSONHis Majesty's Consul-General at Loanda has stated that in 1927 some 5,000 natives from Angola were shipped to the islands of S. Thomé and S. Principé and that some 300 were repatriated from the Islands. These natives were recruited by an agency in Angola and His Majesty's Consul-General said that in view of the labour conditions in Angola, there was no reason why natives should not elect to go for a term to the islands. He further stated that the Portuguese authorities in Angola had detained some 1,000 natives recruited in Angola for S. Thomé on information having been laid that irregularities in their recruitment had been committed. No first-hand information as to actual conditions on the cocoa plantations is available.
In 1914 there was a Consul-General at Loanda with three Vice-Consuls under 2141W him who resided at Lobito, S. Thomé and Fernando Po. At present there is a Consul-General at Loanda, a salaried Vice-Consul at Lobito and an unsalaried Vice-Consul at Mossamedes. The Portuguese Government issued a decree on the 6th December, 1928, to give effect to the provisions of the Slavery Convention signed at Geneva on the 25th September, 1926, of which the Portuguese Government is a signatory. The engagement of labour under contract is not prohibited by international agreement and labourers continue to be recruited in Angola under contract for work in the cocoa plantations in S. Thomé and Principé. The application of the Portuguese decree of the 6th December, 1928, is expected to lead to improvement in labour conditions in the Portuguese possessions in West Africa, but the information in the possession of His Majesty's Government on this subject is not of a sufficiently definite character to afford a reliable basis of comparison with the conditions in 1914.