WHAT IS “FORCED” OR *‘‘COMPUL-
SORY” LABOUR?
The South African Government, discussing the Draft
Slavery Convention, defined compulsory labour, apart
from slavery, as the state of affairs that exists when * the
person doing the labour unwillingly does so because he
fears that a worse thing may befall him.”
In the Questionnaire addressed to the various govern-
ments last year forced labour is defined as “all work or
service which is exacted from any person under the menace
of any penalty for its non-performance and for which
the worker does not offer himself voluntarily.”
FORCED LABOUR FOR PRIVATE EMPLOYERS.
The Temporary Slavery Commission of the League of
Nations in concluding its labours in 1925 submitted to
the Council of the League certain “ suggestions ” with
reference to compulsory labour. One of these reads:
“ The Commission considers that forms of direct or
indirect compulsion the primary object of which is to
force Natives into private employment are abuses.”
THE “RIGHT” OF PRIVATE PERSONS TO
BE SUPPLIED WITH LABOUR.
The principles of British policy were laid down by
[Lord Lugard in his report on the amalgamation of North-
ern and Southern Nigeria, in which he stated that the
Government would not apply coercion in any form in
order to provide labour for private undertakings.
“ Employers must, therefore,” he continued, * make the
conditions of service sufficiently attractive to secure the
labourers they need . . . Labour will be secured only by
kind and fair treatment, decent hutments, the entire
absence of blows and ill-usage. ....”
Mr. Ormsby-Gore, Under-Secretary for the Colo-
nies, during 1925 made a special pronouncement on the
subject with regard to Kenya: ‘No new settler,” he
is reported to have said, “ must go to Kenya under the
impression that he has a right to labour. He will get his
labour if he goes the right way about it. It is one of the
hazards of the undertaking.”