§ MR. SAMUEL SMITHI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been drawn to the large number of slaves carried across the Red Sea, which is estimated at from 2,000 to 5,000 a year, for the purpose of supplying the harems of the wealthier classes of Turkey and Arabia with children of both sexes; whether he is aware that only 37 children were released at Aden last year, all of whom had to be sent to hospital in consequence of the treatment they had received; whether it is true that there is only one English man-of-war available for the suppression of this traffic, and that the steam launch belonging to her is worn out, so that only open boats are available for checking this traffic, and whether the Government will adopt more active measures, especially in concert with the Italian Government, to suppress this inhuman traffic?
§ *SIR J. FERGUSSON(1) Report from the officers employed in the Red Sea state there is large traffic in slaves, disguised as pilgrims and otherwise. (2) We have no information as to the exact number of children released at Aden last year. (3) There is only one vessel, H.M.S. Dolphin, at present employed in the Red Sea in the neighbourhood of Suakim; but no information has been received by the Admiralty as to her steamboat being defective. A defective boat would be immediately replaced on demand of the officer in command. (4) Italy acceded in 1885 to the Slave Trade Treaty Act. Her Majesty and the Sultan and the two Governments have since been acting in concert for the suppression of the Slave Trade in the Red Sea. When the General Act, recently signed at Brussels, comes into operation it is hoped that the regulations which have been adopted by all the Powers will tend to the complete suppression of the Slave Trade.