§ MR. ANDERSONasked the First Lord of the Admiralty, If he is responsible for a Return, numbered 381, on the subject of "Slave Vessels and Slaves," distributed to Members a few days ago; and, if so, why that Return has been presented to Parliament with a most important part of the information ordered by the House absent from it? He might explain that an amended Return had been placed in the hands of hon. Members that morning; and he wished to ask whether the information contained in it was all the information which the right hon. Gentleman was able to give? For instance, it referred to the deportation of Natives of Zanzibar and other places, and he wished to know whether they had been set to work as free labourers or under some indenture system; and, in the latter case, whether any regulations had been framed by the Treasury as provided by the Act?
§ MR. W. H. SMITH,in reply, regretted that the Return had been sent out in an incomplete form through the mistake of a clerk whose duty it was to 590 prepare it; but all the additional information which was in the hands of the Government was contained in the Paper distributed this morning. He was not in a position just now to answer the further Question which the hon. Gentleman had asked.