§ SIR JOHN HAYasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, If his attention has been called to the report of Mr. Consul Holmwood (Slave Trade Papers, No. 1, page 165), and to the number of British subjects therein reported to be the owners of slaves, and what steps Her Majesty's Government propose to take to discourage this practice and the encouragement of the East African Slave Trade by subjects of the Crown?
§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICESir, in the Report on Johanna, from which the hon. and gallant Admiral quotes, Consul Holmwood does not speak of the slaves as being "owned" by British subjects, but as "employed by European and American planters." The labourers are paid directly for their services, and the British authorities cannot intervene between them and their employers. Consul Holmwood will return to Johanna at an early date with the ratifications of the Treaty of the 10th of October last for the suppression of Slavery and the Slave Trade, and it is hoped that this Treaty will prove effectual.