Full text: Forced labour in Africa

FORCED LABOUR FOR PRIVATE EMPLOYERS. 
The Labour Office Report (p. 286) states, “ almost all 
legislation on the subject of forced labour forbids recourse 
to it for the benefit of private individuals. The only 
direct legal compulsion of this kind appears to be in the 
Dutch East Indies, where it is a survival of a feudal in- 
stitution. . . . the Government’s policy in this case is to 
buy out the rights of the feudal lords, and considerable 
progress, at great expense has been made.” 
The Report further states (p. 290) “ Taxation as a 
means of forcing workers to seek employment. There have 
been cases where the taxation imposed upon Native 
populations has been devised with the express intention 
of forcing them into private employment in order that they 
might earn the money necessary to pay their taxes, and 
measures of this kind have been frequently advocated by 
interested parties. 
“Tt need hardly be said that taxation designed for this 
purpose is an alternative to the direct enactment of forced 
labour for private employers.” 
THE NATIVE SERVICE CONTRACT 
REGISTRATION BILL. 
The Minister of Justice has prepared a Bill with the 
above title under which with certain limited exceptions, 
any Native male domiciled in the Transvaal or Natal 
outside any location who is or appears to be above the 
age of 18 and under the age of 60 will be liable to a special 
tax of £5 unless he can prove that in the year in question 
He has worked for at least three months under a contract 
of service or as an artizan. This is in addition to the poll 
tax and, as in the case of the poll-tax, non-payment is 
an offence rendering the defaulting Native liable to im- 
prisonment and that without cancellation of his liability 
to pay the tax. 
THE BILL EMBRACES ALL THE SUGGES- 
TIONS OF THE FARMERS. 
The Minister of Justice, in an interview with Ons 
Vaderland stated that the new Bill * embraced all the
	        
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