HC Deb 14 December 1893 vol 19 cc1358-9
MR. J. PEASE (Northumberland, Tyneside)

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether Her Majesty's Government made the Indian Code applicable to the Province of Witu when it was banded over to the Imperial British East Africa Company's administration in March, 1891; and whether now, when Her Majesty's Government has itself to carry out a policy, Witu, which has by international agreement been constituted a British Protectorate, has been recently brought under the jurisdiction of the Sultan of Zanzibar, the Province being thus again placed under Mahomedan law, and recognition being given to the status of slavery?

SIR E. GREY

The judicial powers of the Company in Witu were exercised under the Africa Order in Council of 1889. The agreement of March 5, 1891, stipulated that the Indian Code should govern procedure under the Order, because the persons affected would be principally British Indian subjects. Justice to natives of Witu, in Witu, is not administered under British Orders in Council, which do not concern them, but under native law and custom. No change whatever has been made in this respect since the withdrawal of the Company's administration.

MR. J. A. PEASE

May I ask whether the provisions of the Indian Code cannot be made applicable to natives in the British Protectorate, although they are not British subjects?

SIR E. GREY

I understand that they are not applicable under the Order in Council under which the judicial powers of the Company were exercised.

SIR C. W. DILKE (Gloucester, Forest of Dean)

Might it not be made so?

SIR E. GREY

It has not been made so in neighbouring Protectorates where Mahomedan laws are allowed to prevail.

SIR J. GORST (Cambridge University)

Is it not possible to make the British Indian law applicable to the natives of a territory over which England has assumed the sovereignty?

SIR C. W. DILKE

I should like to ask whether such laws have not been made applicable in a virtually British region in the same way under the Colonial Office?

SIR E. GREY

I cannot say what was done under the Colonial Office; this has not been done in any Protectorate under the Foreign Office.