URY'S
DEPOT TO THE BEACH, ACCRA.]

As there is no available labour in San Thome, the planters get their
workers from the mainland of Africa. Prior to the year 1908, the labour
system of the islands was responsible for grave abuses. This has now
been changed. Natives from the Portuguese colonies of Angola and
Mozambique now enter freely into contracts ranging from one to five
years, two years being the time generally chosen. At the end of their
term of work they either re-contract or return to their native land with
their savings, with which they generally buy a wife. The readiness with
which the natives volunteer for the work on the islands is proof both of
the soundness of the system of contract and of the good treatment they
receive at the hands of the planters.

[Illustration: THE BUILDINGS OF THE BOA ENTRADA CACAO ESTATE, SAN
THOME.]

Unfortunately, the mortality of the plantation labourers has generally
been very heavy, one large and well-managed estate recording on an
average of seven years an annual death rate of 148 per thousand, and
many _rocas_ have still more appalling records. Against this, other
plantations only a few miles away may show a mortality approximating to
that of an average European city. In February, 1918, the workers in San
Thome numbered 39,605, and the deaths during the previous year, 1917,
were 1,808, thus showing on official figures an annual mortality of 45
per thousand. Comparing this with the 26 per thousand of Trinidad, and
remembering that most of the San Thome labourers are in the prime of
life, it will be seen that this death rate represents a heavy loss of
life and justifies the continued demand from the British cocoa
manufacturers for the appointment and report of a special medical
commission.

The Portuguese Government is prepared to meet this demand, for it has
recently sent a Commissioner, Dr. Joaquim Gouveia, to San Thome to make
a thorough examination of labour conditions, including work, food,
housing, hospitals and medical attendance, and to report fully and
confidentially to the Portuguese Colonial Secretary.

[Illustration: DRYING CACAO AT AGUA IZE, SAN THOME.
The trays are on wheels, which run on rails.]

If this important step is followed by adequate measures of reform there
is every reason to hope that the result will be a material reduction in
the death rate, as the good health enjoyed on some of the _rocas_ shows
San Thome to be not more unhealthy than other t