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LONDON, Oct 30: King Charles has since 2022 expressed sorrow for the suffering caused by \u200cslavery without crossing a line that Britain has long resisted: an apology.<\/strong><\/p>\n That balancing act is likely to be tested at next week\u2019s Commonwealth summit in Antigua and Barbuda, where Caribbean leaders who back a reparations campaign through the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are expected to press their case.<\/p>\n Buckingham Palace \u200bhas indicated Charles would not apologise on behalf of Britain, which has repeatedly ruled out financial reparations over its \u200brole in the transatlantic slave trade.<\/p>\n Speaking in the Bahamas on Tuesday ahead of a Commonwealth \u2060Heads of Government Meeting that begins on Sunday, Charles said it was \u201conly right that we should acknowledge the great suffering \u200band injustices of the past,\u201d and said leaders from affected countries would discuss the issue at the summit.<\/p>\n But Niambi Hall Campbell-Dean, chair \u200bof the Bahamas\u2019 National Reparations Committee, said that did not go far enough. \u201cWe do not need more carefully crafted words about healing,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cWe need action equal with the scale of the harm inflicted.\u201d<\/p>\n From the 15th to the 19th century, \u200bat least 12.5 million Africans were abducted and sold into slavery by European traders, with Britain transporting an estimated 3.2 \u200bmillion people across the Atlantic, making it one of the biggest slave-trading nations, according to the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database.<\/p>\n Alan Lester, a University \u200cof Sussex \u2060historian whose research spans the legacies of slavery and empire, said opponents of the reparations movement had \u201csuccessfully weaponised\u201d the idea that reparations simply meant writing a cheque, an idea that few Western governments will countenance.<\/p>\n Instead, Caribbean leaders often frame their demands in terms of debt relief, development finance, education, healthcare and climate resilience, measures they say would address inequalities rooted in slavery and \u200bcolonialism.<\/p>\n \u201cI think King Charles III \u200bis in a difficult \u2060position because you can express sorrow about something, but an apology goes much further,\u201d royal commentator Afua Hagan said.<\/p>\n Buckingham Palace said in 2023 that Charles had given his support to research \u200bthat was examining the monarchy\u2019s links to slavery after the Guardian newspaper reported on a \u200bdocument showing a \u2060historical connection.<\/p>\n In a more recent finding, independent researcher Desiree Baptiste told Reuters her forthcoming book, \u201cGeorge IV, Empire, and Objects of Prestige,\u201d would cite House of Lords papers and other British government records showing that profits derived from enslaved labour helped fund furniture and decorative \u2060work commissioned \u200bby George IV at royal residences.<\/p>\n In a response, the Royal Collection Trust, \u200ba charity that maintains and displays artworks and historic objects owned by the monarch, said constant research helped it to keep its records \u201ccontinually under review in \u200border to improve the information presented on an object or subject\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nROYAL LINKS TO SLAVERY UNDER SCRUTINY<\/strong><\/h3>\n