There is considerable talk nowadays about compensation to the descendants of slaves. There is general agreement about the fact that slavery is a crime against humanity and that some kind of compensation is due to the great grandchildren of the victims. What is not clear, is the nature and amount of this compensation and who should pay it. An organization has even recently addressed a petition to Queen Elizabeth II.

One would recall that when those forced to work as slaves under Hitler?s regime filed case for compensation, they clearly identified those German companies that benefited from their forced labour during World War II, and specifically targeted their claims against them. Some of these companies actually agreed to pay the bulk of the compensation.

Following this logic, it would appear that the descendants of the former slaves could focus their claims in a similar manner, rather than talk vaguely about them, without being clear about who should pay and why they should do so. It should not be difficult to identify some of those companies or individuals who benefited from slave labour and who even received compensation when salary was abolished.

It so happened that the payment of this compensation to slave-owners, amounting to £ 2,100,000 ( a huge amount considering that this was paid in the 1830?s), coincided roughly with the creation of the Mauritius Commercial Bank. This being the case, the bank archives should supply useful information about those who benefited from slavery, how much they were paid when slavery was abolished and, as a result, who should contribute to the fund from which descendants of slaves would be compensated.

Paul HAN