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.”