§ SIR HARRY VERNEYasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether Her Majesty's Government will take steps with a view to the appointment of an officer to give protection to and to control traders, missionaries, and others, Her Majesty's subjects, in the countries bordering on Lakes Nyassa and Tanganyika in Africa?
§ SIR CHARLES W. DILKESir, the districts to which the Question of the 527 hon. Gentleman refers are very far inland, and are also districts in which there is no great Chief of much power to whom Representatives of Her Majesty could be accredited, that statement being subject to limitation only as regards the case of Uganda. It would, therefore, be impossible for the Government to support the authority of any Consuls who might be appointed to these districts, or even to protect their persons from attacks made against them by Native Chiefs; and great difficulty might therefore occur in the event of any Consul being murdered or imprisoned by the Native Chiefs. Looking, therefore, to the difficulties likely to arise from such appointments, Her Majesty's Government are not prepared to recommend them generally; but, whenever it is practicable, they will be ready to take steps to maintain communication with, and exercise such control as is possible over, traders and missionaries in the interior. I may mention that Dr. Kirk, Her Majesty's Consul General at Zanzibar, has recently been instructed to recognize Mr. Hare, of the London Missionary Society's Mission on Lake Tanganyika, as the official channel of communication with Ujiji, and, if necessary, to appoint him Consular Agent.