§ MR. ERRINGTONasked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether the attention of Her Majesty's Government has been called to the trial and conviction at Sierre Leone of two ex-employés of the Church Missionary Society for the murder of a woman at Onitscha on the Niger; and, whether, considering the gravity of this case, as well as the long delay of five years which elapsed before the culprits were brought to justice, Her Majesty's Government will consider the expediency of directing its representatives, especially on the oil rivers, to exercise greater vigilance in the detection and punishment of outrages on Natives?
§ MR. EVELYN ASHLEYSir, Onitscha, where this crime was committed, is outside the jurisdiction of any of the African Colonies, and the delay in bringing the criminals to justice may be explained by the fact that it was not till the early part of 1880 that any adequate evidence was obtained, when the Administrator of Lagos forwarded it to the Colonial Office. It must further be remembered that a cumbrous Commission under the provisions of two Acts of George III. was the only means whereby the prosecution could be carried out, and that prisoners and witnesses had to be fetched and brought down a distance Of 2,000 miles to Sierra Leone. On the whole, I must congratulate our representatives on the coast for the perseverance and success with which they have pursued the authors of the most abominable cruelties. The terms of a new Order in Council are under consideration, under which it is hoped that British subjects guilty of crimes within the Consular jurisdiction on the West Coast of Africa may be more easily punished.