however, in the Gold Coast, as I have noted above, the Ordinance 
dealing with slavery is expressly styled an * Emancipation 
Ordinance, the salient clause in both the Gold Coast and Nigerian 
law 1s in the same terms, viz., that the persons affected are 
“declared to be free persons.”’ However this may be, an 
Ordinance on the Nigerian lines appears effectually to secure what 
is probably the general desire of most Englishmen, i.e., an unequi- 
vocal pronouncement that slavery will no longer be recognised as 
a status on which any customary rights can be founded, and on 
which such rights will be more or less actively supported by 
Government. 
I have no official information as to what has been the actual 
effect in practice of the Nigerian Ordinance, though I gathered 
from one of the senior residents whom I saw recently that most 
of the old slaves have remained with their masters. 
The Gambia.—Under Ordinance No. 5 of 1906 (The Slave Trade 
Abolition Ordinance) all persons born after the commencement of 
the Ordinance are free from birth, while any persons held in any 
manner of servitude shall be and become free for all intents and 
purposes on the death of their masters. An earlier Act (Slave 
Trade Abolition Ordinance, 1894) enabled complete emancipa- 
tion ** to be by proclamation declared in any part of the Gambia 
Protectorate ; section 4 went on to say that children born after 
that date, in such part of the Protectorate, should be free from 
birth, and that all slaves in that part should be free as from their 
masters’ deaths. (To call this complete emancipation seems to 
have been a misnomer.) I have no means of ascertaining if any 
such proclamation was ever promulgated between the year 1894 
and the passing of the new Ordinance in 1906. 
French West Africa. —His Majesty's Consul-General at Dakar 
has recently (December, 1923) formed me that ‘* in no portion 
of French West Africa is the legal status of slavery recognised 
by law or anything akin to it »’ 
Slaves and Land Tenure. 
Before I proceed to indicate the action that 1 have taken since 
assuming the Government of Sierra Leone I would ask your 
indulgence for making one more rather lengthy quotation, viz., 
from Dr. Maxwell's memorandum of 19th September, 1912. written 
for the’ West African Lands Committee :— 
“ The tenure of land by slaves is a matter of some 
importance’ as questions still arise depending on the old 
customs connected with slavery, and the relation of slaves to 
the land. Formerly, a slave who had been bought or was a 
captive in war bad no rights; his master could dispose of him 
as he liked and could use his service as he chose. In time, 
however, if he gave good service, he would be attached io =