THE BISHOP OF UGANDA 163
sent to me signed by forty of the great chiefs of Uganda, declaring their wish and intention to abolish slavery altogether as a domestic institu tion. Slave-trading and slave-raiding had already been made illegal by a treaty entered into between Uganda and the British East Africa Company."
" Then what is the position now with regard to slave-trading?"
" Slave -trading is contraband. It is quite contrary to both British and native law. The status of a slave is not recognised now either in a British or native Court in Uganda. One might add that at the present time the only blot on the good fame of East Africa in this respect is the maintenance of the status of slavery by Great Britain in the coast districts of the East African Protectorate."
" But some slave-trading still seems to be going on. Who are the offenders ? "
"The chief offenders are those living in the out-of-the-way parts of the country, who have not yet been touched by the progressive spirit which has taken possession of other districts and who have not yet come under any sort of authority. The Arab dhows, and some concerned in the trade between Zanzibar and the Persian Gulf, are guilty of a good deal of contraband trade of this kind. Captures are made from time to time, but the slave-trading still goes on. And so it will, more or less, until the status of slavery is absolutely
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