HC Deb 07 February 1881 vol 258 c267
SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE

I wish to put a Question to the Government as to whether they have any information with regard to the report of probable hostilities in Ashantee?

MR. GRANT DUFF

The best answer I can make to the right hon. Gentleman will he, I think, to read a telegram from Lieutenant Governor Griffith to the Earl of Kimberley, dated Gold Coast, January 24, 1881, and received at the Colonial Office on Saturday.

[For telegram see p. 234.]

I may add that there are already about 1,250 men at the disposal of the Lieutenant Governor, all well suited for the kind of work they are likely to have to do. Some 400 more will immediately go to the Gold Coast from the West Indies; and the Lieutenant Governor seems to have lost no time in communicating the state of affairs to the naval officers on the West African Station.