Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 29 Gorffennaf 1926.
There is no real analogy. Admittedly you have some abuses, but that is not the action of the British Government; it is the action of the African natives themselves, and it is the policy of the British Government to do all they can, under the Uganda Treaty by which we rule that country, to prevent the abuses. In regard to the use of compulsory labour by chiefs for the growing of cotton on the chief's land, the present Governor is making proposals, and we hope that we shall get an agreement for the effective working out of a more satisfactory state of things. It is quite an illusion to imagine that the Gold Coast is a country of small producers. The whole land system of the country is changing. The cocoa farms of the natives are becoming larger and larger, and they are becoming more and more dependent on wage-labour for cultivation.