§ MR. HENNIKER HEATON (Canterbury)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies a question of which I have given him private notice. (1) What Government is now established in Samoa, and what rights or liabilities attach to this country in connection with that Government; (2) whether Samoa is still under any form of joint control on the part of the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany; (3) whether the Secretary of State was aware of, and assented beforehand to, the action of Sir John Thurston, High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, in promulgating an Ordinance directed against sedition in Samoa; (4) whether such Ordinance was issued in consequence of representations by a foreign Power; whether it was not aimed exclusively at Mr. R. L. Stevenson, the well-known English man of letters; whether the Secretary of State has received any communication from Sir J. Thurston on the subject of Mr. Steven-son's action; and, if so, whether it will be laid on the Table; (5) whether the British Government has endorsed Sir J. Thurston's action in the matter?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Mr. S. BUXTON,) Tower Hamlets, PoplarIn answer to the first two questions, the arrangements as to the affairs of Samoa, which were agreed to at Berlin by the Governments of Great Britain, Germany, and the United States, are still in force. The hon. Member will find them set out in the Parliamentary Paper C—5911 of 1890. The answer to the third and fourth question is "No." With regard to the fifth question, it was decided, on receipt of the Regulation, to instruct the High Commissioner to modify some portions of it.