§ MR. KINNAIRDsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, On what grounds the Committee on the East African Slave Trade have recommended Zanzibar as a suitable place for locating liberated slaves to be employed as free labourers, and whose authority weighed with them in making such a recommendation; and when the Report of the joint Committee would be presented to Parliament?
MR. OTWAYsaid, in reply, that the Committee had recommended Zanzibar as a suitable place for locating liberated slaves—first, on account of the central position which it occupied, and secondly, because of the great and increasing demand for labour there, freedmen being 1771 able to earn very good wages. The recommendation was made principally upon the advice of Mr. Churchill, Her Majesty's political agent at Zanzibar. The Report of the joint Committee would be laid upon the Table; but hon. Members would see that for obvious reasons it would be very difficult to circulate copies for some time to come.