HC Deb 26 February 1883 vol 276 cc837-8
SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL

asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, With reference to Admiral Gore Jones's Report of his official visit to the capital of the Hovas, at the instance of the Foreign Department, and his statement that the Prime Minister is forming a regular Army of 40,000 men in order to subject the tribes not now under Hova rule and submit the whole island to what the Admiral calls the "mild despotism" of the Hova Government, He has rightly represented the British Government when he says to the Hova Queen— It is our ardent wish to see your Majesty's influence extended over the length and breadth of the land, and expresses the sincere hope that the whole of Madagascar will soon he under the benign influence of your Majesty's control and of your Prime Minister and Commander in Chief; or, if not, whether Her Majesty's Government have taken steps to disabuse the Hova authorities of the incitement to conquest thus conveyed, and of the view, on which they seized, that the Admiral's general expressions of his belief in the friendship of the French towards them amounted to an assurance that the French also desire the good of this country, and the extending of the Hova influence all over Madagascar?

LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICE

Admiral Gore Jones's Report was laid before Parliament in accordance with a request addressed to my hon. Friend the Secretary to the Admiralty, as an account of his visit to Madagascar, and not as a statement of the views of Her Majesty's Government, with regard to which full information will be found in the Papers about to be presented to Parliament.