§ MR. CAINE(for Mr. S. SMITH) (Flintshire)asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether his attention has been drawn to the following statement in The Pall Mall Gazette of the 5th May, regarding The Reign of Terror in Tonga, wherein it was alleged that the British Consul was fired upon:—
On the following day, February 3, it leaked out that six more men had been found guilty of complicity in the business, and were to be shot. Among them was David Fenan, an ordained Wesleyan minister. Thirty more, it was reported, were being tried, and would probably share the same fate … The British residents protested strongly, and the British Consul protested on behalf of our Government. Dr. Bucklands was one of the protesting parties, and it was reported that Baker's reply to him was that if anybody dared to lay a finger on him every white man in the Island should be killed. Several British residents were, in fact, fired upon, the British Consul being amongst the number. On one occasion, as the Consul and Mr. Moulton were walking in the College grounds, a bullet passed quite close to them. The bullet was found, and identified as a Government bullet. The cool determination everywhere displayed by Mr. W. E. Giles, the British pro-Consul, has won universal admiration among all classes, European and Native;and, whether it is the intention of Her Majesty's Government to take any steps in regard thereto?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Sir HENRY HOLLAND) (Hampstead)(who replied) said: I have already twice stated that Her Majesty's High Commissioner for the Western Pacific is now holding an inquiry into these transactions (or has completed it), and that it is necessary to await his Report, and not to accept as strictly accurate the ex parte statements which have appeared in the Press. But I will send out the three articles in The Pall Mall Gazette by the next mail to Sir Charles Mitchell.