§ Mr. WEDGWOODasked the Under-Secretary for the Colonies whether his attention has been drawn to pages 17 and 18 of the Colonial Report for Ashanti for 1909, reciting the disputes and fighting that has arisen over the boundaries of the old tribal lands because of the European demand for land and mineral concessions, which the chiefs are at present able to grant; and whether he will instruct the Governor and the High Court to refuse to ratify any further concessions by chiefs to whites pending general inquiry into the land system in the West Coàst Colonies?
§ Colonel SEELYThe attention of the Secretary of State has been drawn to the passage in the Annual Report on Ashanti to which my hon. Friend refers. He has 1730 no power to issue instructions to the Supreme Court controlling the power, vested in it by the existing law, of ratifying concessions, but he has asked the Governor to report whether any change in the law is required.
§ Sir J. D. REESDoes the hon. Gentleman accept the contemptuous description in the question of Europeans as "whites," and allows the implication that their colour is the only thing white about them?