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AGREEMENT OF EUROPEAN POWERS AS TO

LIQUOR SUPPLY IN AFRICA.

[Contributed by H. R. Fox BOURNE, ESQ.]

We may have to wait some time for an official report of the decisions arrived at by the International Conference which was opened at Brussels on April 20th, and it may be taken for granted that these decisions, when published, will be condemned by many as inadequate. The mere fact of the Conference being held, however, shows that the conscience of Europe, languid though it may be, is not quite dead to its responsibilities as regards the liquor traffic in "the Dark Continent."

"Zone of Prohibition."-The Berlin Conference of 1884-5, giving sanction and stimulus to the "scramble for Africa" which has gone on busily for over fifteen years did no more than express a vague desire that "the native populations should be forearmed against the evils resulting from the abuse of spirituous liquors," and that "an understanding should be established to settle the difficulties that may arise on this score in a manner which reconciles the rights of humanity with the interests of commerce, in so far as these latter are legitimate." The Brussels Conference of 1889-90, which marked out a "spirituous liquor zone" comprising the whole of the continent except its most northern and most southern sections, prohibited the importation and manufacture of all spirits, so far as European control could exclude them, in the districts within the zone "where it shall be ascertained that, either on account of religious belief or from other motives, the use of distilled liquors does not exist or has not been developed." It also ordained that, as regards all districts under European control "where prohibition is not in force," a customs or excise duty of at least fifteen francs per hectolitre (about sixpence-halfpenny a gallon) should be levied for six years after the adoption of its General Act, which was not ratified till 1892; and that at the end of the sixth year, if not sooner, the Powers concerned should reconsider the question in the hope of an impost much higher than the minimum of fifteen francs per hectolitre being agreed to.

The first of these two philanthropic appointments has been but very partially enforced in some portions, of the "zone of prohibition"; and the second has proved to be-as the late Lord Vivian, when he vainly urged

the Brussels Conference to fix the minimum duty at two hundred instead of fifteen francs, predicted that it would be-"an insufficient and useless check upon the increased consumption of strong drink by the natives of Africa." Great Britain has in all cases imposed higher duties than the prescribed minimum, the lowest being two shillings a gallon, except in one district of the Gold Coast, where it is only a shilling; and France and Germany have followed suit in some of their possessions. But in other parts, and notably in the French and Portuguese settlements adjacent to the Congo and in the western outlet of the Congo Free State, no more is done than the Brussels Act of 1892 requires. The six years, at the end of which this Act proposed that its liquor arrangements should be revised, moreover, had been outrun thirteen months before the second Brussels Conference met the other day; and those of us who, on the Continent as well as in England, have long been urging our several Governments to take such action in the matter as we contend to be no less prudent on economic grounds than obligatory on ethical grounds, had begun to fear that no fresh international agreement would be come to. If we now find that we get much less than we want, we must console ourselves by the thought that half a loaf, even a thin slice, is better than no bread.

International Agreement.-The African liquor question is one about which international agreement is indispensable to the proper working out of any philanthropic or equitable scheme that may be proposed. Our own Government-thanks in part to the personal interest taken in the matter by Lord Salisbury and Mr. Chamberlain-has done perhaps as much as could be expected of it in leading the way and running what are thought to be risks of injury to British trade from unequal foreign competition. But its difficulties may be illustrated by a reference to the case of our Gold Coast and Lagos colonies and protectorates. In the western and by far the larger part of the Gold Coast a duty of four shillings and sixpence a gallon is now levied on all imported spirits, and efforts are made to keep them out of the interior. In the eastern fragment, however, on the other side of the River Volta, only a shilling a gallon is charged, this being the amount corresponding to the charge which a few years ago the Germans were induced to make, instead of the sixpence-halfpenny they were formerly content with, in their adjacent colony of Togoland. The Anglo-German Convention of 1894 put a check on the ruinous competition that had previously gone on between rival German and English traders; but the smallness of the impost encourages the liquor traffic in these localities, and gives an unfair advantage to both the Germans and the English engaged in it over others in the rest of the Gold Coast. Yet an improvement here is deemed impolitic because in Dahomey, on the eastern side of Togoland, the French levy a spirit duty of only about eightpence a gallon; and, the duty being so low in Dahomey, not only traders in the Gold Coast and Togoland, but also those of Lagos, on its other side, where the duty was two shillings, but has just

been raised to three shillings by Mr. Chamberlain's order, consider that they have a grievance. Measured by the population of Dahomey, the supply of liquor to Porto Novo, its commercial capital, is very much larger than that to the rival ports in English and German territory; and whether or not there is much smuggling into their markets, the great variations within barely more than a hundred and fifty miles of coast-line cause much confusion and reasonable annoyance. An equalisation of duties, not merely over this short strip of coast-line, but along the entire coast, from French Senegal in the north to German Damaraland in the south, would clear away many complications, and if fixed at a high enough level to efficiently restrain the liquor trade would be of immense benefit to healthier commerce and to the social advancement of all the portions of Africa reached from the Atlantic, as well as to the political aims of the Europeans claiming authority over them.

The Germans, the French, and the rulers of the Congo Free State-our only competitors in this field of African enterprise, with the exception of the Portuguese-are discovering, as it was long ago discovered by the shrewder administrators of British possessions in Africa, that whatever immediate profits it may yield to those who embark in it, the liquor trade is a dangerous and destructive obstacle alike to native progress and to European interests. On this account they are all doing something, if not much, to deter their own black subjects from the drunkenness that adds to their present degradation. Why then, it may be asked, should there be any trouble in getting them to agree to some plan for keeping down the liquor supply, if not for altogether excluding it?

One of the hindrances to this sensible course arises from the unfortunate arrangements by which the "partition of Africa " has been affected. Leaving Liberia out of account, there are only five European Powers having possessions on the western side of Africa within the "spirituous liquors zone"; but those possessions number eighteen, and with the exception of three in English hands (Lagos, the Niger Coast Protectorate, and the Royal Niger Company's territory, which form a compact group), each of them is bounded on either side by the possession of a rival Power. Great Britain has seven, France five, Germany three, Portugal two, and there is the Congo Free State. Governments inclined, more or less, to protect their own natives from the drink poison see no harm in the poisoning of natives under other rule, if anything is to be gained thereby.

The political jealousy of which we had an alarming instance last year in the dispute between France and England over parts of the Niger district has every-day expression-less perilous, but by no means trivial-in the efforts of each settlement to get the better of its neighbours. As a larger and more lucrative trade is done in the British settlements than elsewhere, it is not surprising perhaps that they are especially exposed to this jealous competition. But it is chiefly in the interests of the spirit-producers in Europe that the African liquor trade is tolerated and encouraged. Hamburg

and Bremen owe much of their present prosperity to the potato-spirit which can be turned out in unlimited quantities within easy reach of these central marts. In like manner Rotterdam profits greatly by the coarse gin it obtains from Eastern Holland and other sources. A kindred industry is rapidly growing up in northern parts of France, and from the United States a good deal of inferior rum is still sent to Africa; but by far the larger part of the cheap stuff is shipped from the North German and Dutch ports, though much of it in vessels owned by Liverpool and other British shipping companies. Of the German cargoes, only a small portion goes to German colonies. Holland has no African colonies to which the Dutch cargoes can go. Thus, in the one case there is small inducement, and in the other there is none, for any attempt on the part of the Government to restrain, for the benefit of African savages, a traffic by which distillers and merchants at home make money. Hence, primarily, the inadequacy of the restrictive measures which were all that Lord Vivian could persuade the Conference of 1889-90 to agree to. For the same reason we dare not hope for much as a result of the negotiations resumed last month.

Trade and Liquor Traffic.-Just before the new conference entered on its work Mr. Chamberlain announced that, whatever the other Powers might do, Her Majesty's Government was resolved as soon as possible to raise to four shillings a gallon the duty on spirits imported into any of our West African possessions in which lower duty is charged at present, and to do everything in its power to exclude spirits altogether from the interior districts that are now, by railroads and other improved means of communication, being opened up to British trade. We are constantly assured by the Liverpool shipowners and their associates that African natives will not buy Manchester cottons or Sheffield tools or Birmingham gew-gaws unless each transaction is floated in cheap gin or rum; and that unless the buyer gets as much as he wants of this fiery liquid, at the price he is accustomed to, both for his own immediate consumption and for use in procuring palm-oil, rubber, or what not with which to continue his business, trade will be shifted from British markets in Lagos, the Gold Coast, or Sierra Leone, to the markets in German, French, or other territory, which will thus be enriched at our own colonies' expense. But the balance of experience is against the alarmists. As a set-off to any temporary shrinkage of trade, moreover, should it here and there occur, must be reckoned the unquestionable advantage that would ensue, in the long run if not at once, from the raising of our African trade from its present low level of morality. Encourage a man to be a drunkard, and he may be for a time a good customer to the gin-seller, but he will have little or nothing to spare on useful articles, and will soon be too poor and too sodden to buy even drink. If he is kept sober and raised in the standard of civilisation, he and his children after him will be an ever-increasing source of profit to the honest caterer.

Whatever may be the minimum duty resolved upon by the conference

lately assembled at Brussels, Mr. Chamberlain will have opportunity for carrying out his bold policy and expanding it indefinitely. Any example he may set to France, Germany, and other commercial and political rivals, in the way of purging the old markets of their vitiating conditions and of ensuring that the new markets to be opened up shall be as serviceable as possible, will have few, if any, risks, whether it is followed by them or not. Mischiefs of the Traffic.-Exaggerated statements are often made as to the mischief already caused by the drink traffic in Africa. As yet it is, with some exceptions, only along the narrow fringe of coast line, not more than fifty or sixty miles broad, that there is much trade in European liquor or in any other sort of European commodities; and within this limit the proportion of excessive drinkers may not be much greater than it is in many European ports and trading centres. There can be no doubt, however, that Africans who acquire a taste for strong drink imported from Europe are apt to be more demoralised by it than is the European drunkard, and on economic no less than on ethical grounds the taste ought not to be encouraged. Short of complete prohibition, which is hardly to be thought of, it can only be restrained by increasing the cost of the objectionable article, and thus rendering it more difficult to procure. For this there would appear to be no other expedient than the imposition of customs duties sufficiently high to serve as a successful deterrent.

Exclusion from Free Districts. Much more important, however, than any practicable interference with the liquor traffic in districts already contaminated by it-also, it may be assumed, less difficult, as here there are no "vested interests" to be assailed-is its exclusion as far as possible from the districts, ten or fifty times as great and populous, in which at present, "either on account of religious belief or from other motives, the use of distilled liquors does not exist or has not been developed." That is what all the Powers having possessions in Africa pledged themselves to do at the Brussels Conference of 1889-90. There has been more or less pretence of doing it by some, especially in the regions hitherto or still under Mohammedan rule, where bargains entered into with the native chiefs have provided for observance of the law of the Koran prohibiting the use of alcohol. But the pledge has been to a large extent ignored wherever, with or without Government consent, traders have contrived to push their way. Within the next few years, by help of the railroads now being constructed, they will be able to go much further into the interior, and in all directions, than hitherto. Stringent measures ought therefore to be taken without delay for stopping their progress as far as the conveyance of liquor is concerned. Mr. Chamberlain has promised that this shall be done within British possessions, and it is understood that at the new Brussels Conference the British plenipotentiaries had instructions to do all in their power to secure the co-operation of their foreign colleagues in establishing a comprehensive rule on the subject. Such a rule is of

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