§ SIR JOHN KENNAWAYasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign 208 Affairs, Whether any information has been received respecting an agreement between the Governments of France and Portugal for procuring and conveying (so called) free labourers, to be shipped from the Portuguese Territory in East Africa to some of the French Islands; and, whether any communication has been made to the Governments of France or Portugal in regard to a traffic differing only in name from a revival of the slave trade?
§ SIR CHARLES W. DILKECommunications have passed between Her Majesty's Government and those of France and Portugal respecting the recruitment of labour from Ibo, on the East Coast of Africa, to Mayotte, Nossi Bé, and Réunion; it being pointed out that such recruiting threatens a revival of the Slave Trade. The Portuguese Government have rejected a scheme for extending the emigration to Réunion; and with regard to Mayotte, and Nossi Bé, Her Majesty's Government are informed that instructions will be sent to the Mozambique authorities to give the scheme their most careful consideration, and not to put it into execution if they have reason to believe that it will give fresh impetus to the Slave Trade.