§ MR. W. H. JAMESasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies, With reference to his statement that the Griquas imprisoned at Cape Town are treated as prisoners of war, if he can contradict the statement that many of them were brought in chains from Griqualand to Durban, and from there to Cape Town?
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACHSir, my statement the other day was that these Griquas were treated as prisoners of war at Cape Town. So far as I can recollect, I had heard nothing, until the hon. Member gave Notice of this Question, of the way in which they might have been brought there from Griqualand. But it must be remembered 1298 that their outbreak was accompanied by murder, by the plunder of property, and by threats of great violence to White women and children, which could not but cause great alarm to the few White residents in their country; and that, being a race of half-breeds, the excuses which might be made for ignorant Natives are scarcely applicable to their conduct. Therefore, it is very conceivable that it may have been thought necessary to place them during their journey under the same restraint as that to which they would certainly have been liable if they had been arrested as criminals. I may add that the wives of these prisoners were left in the occupation of their farms, and have reaped the crops.