MR. BURTT'S VISIT TO AMERICA.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—In his letter to the Spectator of last week Mr. Ernest Parke, referring to the subject of slave-grown cocoa, and to Mr. Burtt's visit to America, writes that " last year the [cocoa] firms sent Mr. Burtt thither in order to extend the
area of the boycott." While fully aware of, and highly appreciating, the persistent efforts which the firms of Messrs. Cadbury, Fry, and Rowntree have been making for years to put an end to the conditions of the production of cocoa by slave labour in Portuguese West Africa, I feel bound at once to point out that this statement is a mistake, and I am sure that these firms would wish the correction made. Mr. Burtt's visit to the United States was undertaken solely as a delegate from the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines' Protection Society, and the cocoa firms took no part whatever in the enterprise. You, Sir, were good enough to publish, and commend to your readers, the appeal which the Society made in September last for funds to meet this important work.—I am, Sir, &c.,
TRAVERS BUXTON.
51 Denison House, Vauxhall Bridge Boad, S.W.
[Exactly ; we could not find space to correct all Mr. Ernest Parke's misstatements, but thought this one would be obvious to our readers, as we actually undertook to collect subscrip- tions, and did collect them, for the fund raised by Mr. Buxton's Society to send Mr. Burtt to America. We were ourselves subscribers in a small way.—ED. Spectator.]
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