§ MR. HANBURY (Preston)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether slavery is still a recognised institution on the clove and other plantations in the Island of Pemba; whether he can state what is the average life of a slave employed on these plantations; whether the large numbers annually required to make up the deficiency caused by deaths are necessarily recruited by new importations of slaves by the slave traders of the mainland; and whether, in view of the intended Protectorate, Her Majesty's Government hope to induce the Sultan of 194 Zanzibar to abolish the status of slavery in Pemba, under the exceptional circumstances in which it is maintained in that portion of his dominions?
*THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir J. FBEODSSON,) Manchester, N.E.Her Majesty's Government are aware of the existence of, and of the evils attending, slave labour in the Island of Pemba, and, in any changes which maybe impending in that island, the policy which successive British Governments have followed with regard to the Slave Trade, will not be departed from.
§ MR. BLANE (Armagh, S.)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if it be true that England and France have bound themselves by Treaty to respect the Sovereign rights of the Sultan of Zanzibar; and if the Government have taken Zanzibar under their protection in the same way as Egypt?
§ *SIR J. FERGUSSONA Declaration was exchanged between this country and France on the 10th March, 1862, by which they reciprocally engaged to respect the independence of the Sultan of Zanzibar. There is no British Protectorate over Egypt.
§ *SIR J. FERGUSSONThe House is aware that Her Majesty's Government propose to assume a Protectorate.