File 87/1926 Pt 4 'Arabia: Bin Saud: Treaty negotiations: attitude of H.M.G. in regard to their right to manumit slaves' [‎513r] (123/134)

App. III., Annex XV.— eont .]
labour, taken with the action of the International Labour Bureau, cann >r fail to have far-reaching
effects throughout the world, and so far as I know this is the first occasion on which a definite
undertaking, or at any rate so complete an undertaking, in regard to forced labour has been accepted.
I refer particularly to forced labour for private purposes. May I say that India heartily welcomes
the conclusion of this Convention, and is glad to undertake the duty of making every effort to root
out conditions of servitude which approximate to slavery.
It is true that we have to make certain reservations on signing the Convention, but one of these,
which relates only to the search of ships suspected of carrying slaves, need in no way impede the
execution of an effective agreementon this subject. I can assure the Assembly that in fact no Indian
ships are engaged in the slave trade, and that ihe law of India prohibits slavery and this slave trade
under penal clauses of great severity. Another reservation we have been compelled to make is in
relation to Indian States and a small area of unadministered territory. The reason for this
reservation in regard to the Indian States is not that slavery is prevalent there, for this is not the
case at all, but it arises from the constitutional position which those States occupy, a position which
I have fully explained in the Sixth Committee. The Convention will, however, be brought to the
notice of all States, and provision exists in the Convention for extending its obligations to these
areas should this be necessary or desirable in future. In the meantime, in the unadministered areas
of which I spoke, tracts situated on the extreme north-eastern frontier of British India, the population
of wnich is estimated at a few hundred thousand persons only, steady systematic efforts are being
made by the local Governments to eradicate traces of slavery and conditions analogous thereto. In
one of these areas already over 3,000 slaves have been released Cast year) on payment of substantial
compensation to their owners ; in another area a special expedition has been sent this year charged
with the mission of securing by persuasion and payment of compensation the release of all slaves^ in
that territory.
But the efforts of the Government of India have by no means been confined to measures of this
kind. In other provinces steady progress has for many years been made in the direction of measures
to prevent any condition of forced labour approaching to slavery, or even likely to lead to oppression.
Forced labour for private purposes has no legal recognition in India In the province in which the
greater part of my career in India was spent, where forced labour was in some parts exacted as a
predial obligation, and also in lieu of debt, the predial obligation has been commuted into cash
payments and an enactment passed which prohibits any kind of servitude for debt, or the enforcement
of contracts of that nature. Similar efforts have been made in other parts of India, and indeed the
enforcement by penal sanctions of any form of indentured labour or of contracts to labour has been
abolished. Generally it may be said that the Government of India has made, and will continue
to make, every effort to i/et rid of the evils against which this Convention is directed.
Lastly, may I say that such has been the moral influence of the work of the League and of the high
ideals for which it stands, that I saw in the Times the other day a statement, and I have no reason
whatever to doubt it, that the State of Nepal, an independent State not in India but on the northern
frontier, has recently completed the liberation of 5^,000 slaves at a cost of £375,000 paid by the
State. That is a result on which the State of Nepal may, I think, be congratulated, and is clear
evidence of the influence of the League in the East.
My object in placing these details before you is to indicate by direct evidence that India, if apt
to scrutinise with jealousy any agreement which is proposed, has gone a great way towards the goal
which the Convention seeks to obtain. If we examine the terms of these agreements in detail, it is
because we are careful to enter into no solemn undertaking which we are not prepared fully to
implement, and because we have also to consider the effect of such an agreement on a vast
population, one-fifth of the population of the world, living in very varying conditions and permeated
by varying traditions and customs. But, as I have said, India is behind no State in its desire to
eradicate slavery, and if the present Convention does not meet the approbation of all, it achieves a
great deal. Further, should necessity arise in the future it can, and no doubt will, be supplemented
by further agreements until slavery and conditions akin to it, truly described in ihe Committee as a
crime against the human race, are utterly and wholly rooted out.
APPENDIX IV.
Certain other Speeches delivered at the Seventh Assembly.
Annex I .—Report of a Speech by the Right Hon. Viscount Cecil of Chelwood {British
Empire) in the Assembly on the $th September 1926.
I think anyone who looks at the report on the work of the Council will be struck by one
characteristic more than by any other, namely, by its immense extent. It deals with subjects of the
most varied character, from a serious international dispute between Greece and Bulgaria to proposals
for the reform of the calendar and the fixing of the Feast of Easter. Ic deals with the traffic in
opium, with commercial arbitration, with the provision of swimming baths tor children, with the
codification of international law and with the reduction and limitation of armaments, apart from
the very serious matter of the reconstruction of the composition of the Council.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, it would be quite impossible to attempt, even if it were useful, any
review of activities so widely extended as these, and in the observations which I am about to
address to the Assembly, and which, I trust, will be brief, I propose to confine myself to certain
very practical and serious points without attempting to make, even if I were capable of doing so,
an emotional and eloquent oration.
In the first place, may I say one word on the very important topic of the codification of
international law. As you know, the Assembly appointed a Committee—l think it was two years
ago—to deal with that subject, and on the very first page of the report on the work of the Council
an account is given of the activities of the Committee. I cannot help feeling that, though we are
very grateful for that account as far as it goes, we should like to know rather more about Ihe actual