HC Deb 02 June 1892 vol 5 cc457-8
SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT (Derby)

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs when he will be in a position to make any statement with reference to the events reported to have occurred at Uganda in January last; what is the date of the last direct information received from Captain Lugard, the agent of the East Africa Company; whether it is the fact that that Company has received no information from its agents at their principal settlement on the Lakes for a space of nine months; and, what steps Her Majesty's Government propose to take in order to ascertain the real condition of things in the sphere of British influence, and the action of the agents of a Company claiming to act under the authority of the Crown?

MR. J. W. LOWTHER

(1) No statement can be made until Captain Lugard's reports are received. I do not think that they can be long delayed. (2) 13th August, 1891. (3) The last information received was from Captain Williams, dated 4th October, Kampala. (4) No decision can be arrived at until the reports referred to have been received.

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

As I understand there has been no report to this Company from Uganda, the headquarters of their territory, for nine mouths, I want to ask what measures are Her Majesty's Government going to take, in a case where a Chartered Company under the Crown has no information from its principal agent and from its principal station for nine months,, to prevent such a state of things as that existing?

MR. LOWTHER

The answer to that is to wait until the reports arrive.

MR. BUCHANAN (Edinburgh, W.)

Does the hon. Gentleman mean to state that no information has come from Uganda through the British sphere, or that no information at all has come from Uganda?

MR. LOWTHER

I have answered that question several times during the last few days. I said the information came through the British sphere direct from Captain Lugard to the Company.

MR. BUCHANAN

Is the hon. Gentleman not aware that there is no communication through the British sphere, and that all information from Uganda must come through the German sphere?

MR. LOWTHER

I am not aware of anything of the sort. The reports that have been received from Captain Lugard have come through the British sphere.

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

Why is it that it is easier to obtain information from Uganda through the German sphere of influence than it is through the British sphere of influence?

MR. LOWTHER

That seems to me a matter of argument on which I am not competent to give an opinion.

MR. ARTHUR O'CONNOR (Donegal, E.)

; Will the hon. Gentleman give the date of the latest information received by the Foreign Office and the source from which it came?

MR. LOWTHER

If the hon. Gentleman will put the question on the Paper, I will try to give him an answer.

MR. O'KELLY (Roscommon, N.)

Are there no stated periods at which reports are made?

MR. LOWTHER

I do not think there are any stated periods.