§ MR. JUSTIN M'CARTHYasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether his attention has been called to the following statements made by the Gibraltar Correspondent of the Exchange Telegram Company, and published in many of the London evening papers on Monday last:—
Gibraltar, Monday.—I have heard of the sale of another slave in Tangier. It was that of a woman who was sold for thirty-seven dollars. Not long since a slave (a woman) was admitted to the French hospital, who had been compelled by her owner to use her bare feet every day in slacking lime. While she was in the hospital her feet fell off, and both of her legs had to be amputated. It is possible, as stated, that thirty or forty slaves only are sold in Tangier, but that is in the capital alone, where these sales are fewer than in other parts of the country;and, whether these statements, or any of them, are accurate?
§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICESir, my hon. Friend will observe that the report appears to be given merely on hearsay evidence by a correspon- 1318 dent, not at Tangier, but at Gibraltar. If, however, my hon. Friend has any reason for believing it to be true, inquiry will be made into the facts through Her Majesty's Minister at Tangier. The matter would be one to be dealt with by the local tribunals, and would not afford a case for the interference of Her Majesty's Government; the state of slavery, as I have already informed the House, being, unfortunately, legal in Morocco. Her Majesty's Government, I have already stated, have no Treaty rights in regard to the Slave Trade with Morocco.