found its way to England. The bulk of the crop went to the United States, Germany and France. The cocoa was then, and continues to be, grown upon estates owned by Portuguese planters. The chocolate manufacturers of the world bought the raw material on the open market. They had no more to do with the methods of its production than the manufacturers of rubber tyres or toys, who bought Congo rubber on the open market had to do with the system under which rubber was produced in the Congo. In 1901 and 1902 sinister rumours reached Cadbury Brothers in regard to the manner in which labour was procured for these estates, and they took it upon themselves to make inquiries in Lisbon as to the truth of the allegations. Mr. William Cadbury saw the Portuguese Colonial Minister and Sir Martin Gosselin, then British Minister at Lisbon. The former admitted the existence of evils connected with the "recruiting," but undertook that a pending "Labour decree" would do away with them. Sir Martin Gosselin, who was keenly interested in native questions and a man of real human sympathies, advised that the Portuguese Government should be given twelve months within which to set its colonial house in order. At the end of that period—the end of 1903—Cadbury Brothers, continuing to receive similar reports to those which had inspired their original complaint, Mr. William Cadbury again visited Lisbon, interviewed the Government, the planters and Sir Martin Gosselin. The planters denied the charge, and challenged open investigation. The British Minister approved the idea. Cadbury Brothers were no more concerned in righting such wrongs as inquiry might prove to exist in the production of the raw material they turned into the finished article than were other firms in the same line of business. They rightly felt that collective action by the largest British, Continental and American manufacturers would have more weight than isolated steps of their own. They thereupon approached their colleagues and competitors in the industry, placing the facts as they then appeared before them, detailing what they themselves had already done, and what was proposed. Fry's of Bristol, Rowntree's of York, and Stollwerck's of Cologne, agreed to participate in a commission of inquiry: the Americans refused. The difficulty was to find an independent and wholly unbiased person, who possessed a knowledge of Portuguese, the latter qualification being a very vital
