§ MR. O'DONNELLasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies, If he will lay upon the Table of the House a Return of the number of captured Native women and children in South Africa indentured out to the colonial farmers, or otherwise assigned in servitude, since the outbreak of the late Galeka and Gaika wars; and, if he can state whether it is true that several thousands of prisoners of war, the followers and tribesmen of Galeka, Gaika, and other chiefs, are retained in penal servitude at Cape Town and other places, and are daily employed as hard labour convicts upon the public works?
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACHI have already communicated to the House, in the Blue Books relating to Cape affairs, all the information that has reached us with respect to the number of captured Native women and children indentured to the Colonial farmers; and any further information on the subject will be published in the same way. I am not at all aware that it is true that several thousands of prisoners of war are employed as hardlabour convicts at Cape Town and other places, but I have directed inquiry to be made on the subject.