National to International Effort page 3

In the memorandum, dated August 7, 1928, submitted to Sir Eric Dmmmond for the information of the League of Nations, Sir Harcourt Butler was able to report that slavery had practically ceased to exist in Burma. Thus slavery was ended on the Eastern side of India, while on the Western side the Government of India was able to report to the League of Nations its final abolition in Baluchistan, where, in 1926, a decree was signed that from November 4 of that year private property in slaves had ceased to exist - and nearly another 9,000 slaves were set free.

Before the War there were 185,000 slaves in the German Territory of East Africa, and on March 19, 1914, an attempt was made in the German Reichstag to secure the emancipation of these slaves by January, 1920. Unfortunately, public opinion had not been sufficiently aroused to justify the Government in accepting the resolution, and the proposal was dropped when it was pointed out that it would involve the payment of nearly half a million of money in 1915 and a second payment of more than a quarter of a million in 1920. At the end of the War, as a result of the Conference at Versailles, and the undertaking of the nations to bring about the total abolition of slavery, the whole of the slaves were set free throughout German East Africa, now a British Mandated Territory under the name of Tanganyika.

The question asked by Sir John Simon on page 230 as to whether or not the League will be able to secure the complete abolition of slavery can only be answered; by public opinion. If the public of 1933-34 and onwards is less determined than in 1833-34, then the League will fail in its attempt, but if a real international conscience can be brought into active being, then the League will succeed in its task of setting free the slaves of the world.