§ MR. RADCLIFFE COOKE (Newington, W.)asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether, against the urgent representations of the Colonists of British Honduras, the Government have removed the detachment of West Indian troops from the Orange Walk Station, and have given instructions for the detachments at Belize and Corozal to be removed to Jamaica and St. Lucia; whether the Ychaché and Santa Cruz Indians have, on several occasions, made raids upon the settlers; and, whether, on the withdrawal of the troops, the homes of the Colonists and their logwood and mahogany works will be left wholly unprotected?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Sir HENRY HOLLAND) (Hampstead)The troops have been removed from Orange Walk, and the detachments now at Belize and Corozal will be withdrawn from the Colony in the course of next spring. The inhabitants of the Colony have memorialized the Government against the removal of the troops. Raids have in former times been made into the territory of the Colony by the Indians of the tribes mentioned; but none have occurred since the year 1872. On the withdrawal of the troops the homes of the Colonists and their logwood and mahogany works will be protected by the Constabulary Force already in part organized, and by a chain of blockhouses along the North-Western Frontier.