§ MR. A. E. PEASE (York)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether it is true that Lieutenant Stairs, late of the Stanley Emin Pacha Relief Expedition, has been commissioned to proceed to Zanzibar and to engage porters for an expedition into Africa in the service of the Anglo-Belgian Katanga Company; and, if so, whether Her Majesty's Government have given instructions to its Representative in Zanzibar to prevent the hiring of slaves as porters in any such expeditions by British subjects?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir J. FERGUSSON,) Manchester, N.E.I am informed at the War Office that Captain Stairs has been permitted to accept service under the company in question. No special instructions have been sent to Zanzibar concerning him, and I do not know that he is going there; but it is well-known that slaves cannot be hired from their masters by British subjects, and it will be the duty of Her Majesty's Consul General to see that there is no abuse in the contracts made with the porters engaged.