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Bag 504 wine 28 1.54 
Forced Labour in Africa, 
F* several years now the question of forced labour 
has been prominently before the governments of 
the world. In 1925 and 1926 when the Assembly of the 
League of Nations adopted the Convention on Slavery, 
an article was inserted therein condemning in general 
terms recourse to forced labour, and in 1926 the League 
adopted a Resolution inviting the International Labour 
Office to investigate the subject. 
From that date till now the Labour Office has given the 
matter unremitting attention, calling for reports from 
governments, consulting administrators and experts 
with local knowledge (Mr. Taberer represented South 
Africa on the Experts Committee) and publishing for 
general information in orderly form the mass of facts and 
opinions that were thus obtained. 
There was a discussion on the subject at last year's 
International Labour Conference and it has been put 
down as Item I. on the Agenda for this year’s (1930) 
Conference. 
THE COMPLEXITY OF THE SUBJECT. 
Anyone who takes the trouble to read through the 
evidence accumulated by the Labour Office will be struck 
by the wide extension of the practice and the variety of 
the methods employed to compel the *“ Natives > of Africa 
and other countries, but especially of Africa, to labour. 
Labourers may be compelled to work for public purposes 
or for private employers. The compulsion may be applied 
directly by officials or subsidized chiefs or indirectly by 
such means as taxation, vagrancy or pass-laws, depriva- 
tion or restriction of lands.