§ MR. T. BAYLEY (Derbyshire, Chesterfield)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the Foreign Office were informed of the cancelling or withdrawal of Clauses of the Anti-Slavery Edict of 1st August, 1890; whether the Proclamation, dated 28 days later, was issued with the knowledge and consent of the Foreign Office and, whether our Slave Trade policy in the Protectorate of Zanzibar has had any, and what, effect on the Slave Trade that supplies slaves for use on the coast plantations under the British Protectorate in East Africa?
§ SIR E. GREYThe second Decree, the effect of which I have already explained in my answer to the hon. Member for Tyneside, was issued without previous communication with Her Majesty's Government. As far as our knowledge goes, the supply of slaves from the 1503 interior to the coast plantations of the Protectorate has, under British control, absolutely ceased.
§ SIR C. W. DILKEIs it not admitted by Mr. Rodd, the Acting Consul General, that there is slave-smuggling still going on even in the Island of Zanzibar itself?
§ SIR E. GREYIn some instances it may have occurred; but it is absolutely illegal, and I am quite sure the officials are doing their best to put down anything of the kind.