SLAVE-GROWN COCOA.
[To THE EDITOR OF TDB SPECTATOR."] Srn,—Thanks to Collier's Weekly, the fact that your corre- spondent Mr. Burtt discovered Portuguese cocoa to be slave-grown (see Spectator, June 19th) has been given great publicity and has aroused a great deal of comment. I believe a general movement to refrain from the use of this cocoa would at once be felt were it not for the fact that we who consume the product do not know where or by whom it is grown. It comes to us in tins or cakes (in the form of chocolate) labelled from an American or Dutch manufacturer. I have tried to trace its source through the trade channels, but have found our retail and wholesale dealers more ignorant than myself. Would not you have Mr. Burtt go a step further and tell us how we may know Portuguese from other cocoas by telling us who' buys the Lisbon stock P—I am,
[The answer to our correspondent is contained in the letter of the secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society which follows.
We are delighted to bear that Mr. Built is to visit America so soon, and we trust that be will be able to convince the people of the United States that it is their duty to join in making the planters of San Thome and Principe understand that they must alter a system which, as at present organised, leads directly to slave-raiding and slave-trading on the mainland. We venture to say that a very few years after the planters have been obliged to have recourse to free labour they will wonder bow they ever endured a system so inefficient, as well as fraught with such evil consequences, as that which now prevails in the islands.—En. Spectator.]
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