MR. E. PEASEI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether Her Majesty's Government have received any information concerning a slave trade which has sprung up between small places on the Red Sea Coast north of Suakin to the opposite coast north of Jeddah; and whether, as the slave caravans have to pass through Egyptian territory, Her Majesty's Government will call upon that of Egypt to carry out the terms of the Convention of 1877, which undertakes to prevent such transit of slaves?
§ SIR J. FERGUSSONInformation has been received from Sir E. Baring of the existence of such a slave trade as that mentioned. It is, however, his opinion that the Egyptian Government is doing everything in its power to prevent it. The frontiers at Wady Haifa and other stations are carefully watched, and the surveillance at Suakin and other ports on the Red Sea Coast is, in my opinion, as efficient as it is in the power of the Egyptian Government to make it. They are also assisted by the gunboats of Her Majesty's Navy. Early in the year about 60 slaves were taken to the Governor of Suakin by Arab Sheikhs and liberated. The occupation of Tokar dealt a heavy blow to the slave trade, and immediately after the fall of Handoub important arrests were made of notorious slave dealers.