§ MR. SUMMERS (for Sir WILFRID LAWSON,) Cumberland, CockermouthI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has been called to a conference between British merchants interested in the African trade and Members of Parliament, which was held at the House of Commons on the 11th March, at which it was stated, on behalf of the merchants, that "they could not do without sending a certain amount of spirits out with the cotton goods;" and whether he will take whatever steps are in his power to prevent the policy endorsed unanimously by a Resolution of this House (April, 1888), condemning the sale of spirituous liquors to Native races, being set at naught?
§ BARON H. DE WORMSMy attention has been drawn to the Report referred to. I can assure the hon. Baronet that there is no intention of departing from the pledge I gave on behalf of the Government in April, 1888, to which he refers, and which was again confirmed by the Secretary of State in another place in 1889. So long as other countries have contiguous possessions through which spirits can be imported it is impossible for us to suppress the traffic. We already levy in our Colonies duties on spirits greatly in excess of those imposed in the neighbouring French and German Colonies, and also higher than the tariff laid down in the Act of the Brussels Conference.