MR. GILPINasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, What truth there is in the statement which has appeared in The Angsburghe Allgemeine Zeitung of March 25, to the effect that the English Foreign Office have issued instructions founded upon the opinions of the Crown lawyers, that only those slaves who are found in slave dhows who have not become the property of resident Arabs are to be freed?
§ MR. BOURKENo such instructions have been issued by the Foreign Office; but I think it fair to state that there is a question now before the Law Officers of the Crown upon the subject of the 1676 capture of slaves above the coast of Zanzibar. When those questions have been answered the Secretary of State for Foreign affairs will consider whether it is necessary or not to send further instructions upon the subject.