MR. SULLIVANasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether any steps have been taken to secure the release of the prisoners who had been taken from East Griqualand and imprisoned at Cape Town?
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACHHaving considered the representations which have been made to me of the length of time for which the East Griquas had been detained as prisoners at Cape Town, I wrote on Thursday to Sir Bartle Frere, requesting him to bring the subject before his Ministers, and suggesting that they should consider whether the time might not now have arrived when these men, with the exception, perhaps, of the ringleaders, might be allowed to return to their homes. Of course, the matter is one for the decision of the Cape Government, who are much better acquainted than I am with the present condition of the district in question, in which the duty of maintaining order falls upon the Colonial Forces.