QUESTION. (Hansard, 22 July 1869)

MR. OTWAY

said, in reply, that a communication was received at the Foreign Office in June, 1868, from the Convener of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, stating, on the authority of some missionaries at the New Hebrides, that a system of kidnapping natives was being carried on in vessels under the British, American, and French flags, and that even in the case of natives who went willingly the contracts made with them were not adhered to, and that they wore detained for longer periods than they were hired for. The missionaries denounced this traffic as— Being no better than slave-trading; alike injurious to those who are taken and those who are left. As those who are taken are of the strongest of the men, the remaining population is composed of the old and infirm, with the women and children; the women, moreover, on losing their husbands, take others, a course which," the missionaries observed, "produces complications and quarrels on the return of the emigrants. Her Majesty's consuls and naval officers, who were directed to report on this matter, did not bear out the missionaries in their statements, but it was very probable that abuses did arise connected with this immigration; and at Lord Clarendon's suggestion, therefore, special instructions had been sent to the naval authorities on the station to watch over the operations in progress to procure immigrants, and to prevent anything like the slave trade in disguise. Her Majesty's Consul in the Polynesian Archipelago and in the Sandwich Islands would receive instructions in this sense also. He could assure his hon. Friend, and also the hon. Member for Perth (Mr. Kinnaird), who had been in communication with them on the subject, that it would not be neglected in the Foreign Office.