HC Deb 05 September 1893 vol 17 c102
SIR E. ASHMEAD-BAETLETT (Sheffield, Ecclesall)

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has been called to a statement of Mr. F. R. Thompson, a gentleman who has been ten years in the Colonial Service and is well acquainted with South Africa, in which that gentleman states that Lo Bengula's Impis have massacred some 10,000 unoffending Mashonas within the past few years; and whether he will ask Mr. Rhodes to send an estimate of the number of Mashonas massacred by the Matabeles within the past 10 years?

MR. S. BUXTON

My attention has been called to the statement in question; but Her Majesty's Government do not see that any advantage is to be gained by communicating with Mr. Rhodes in reference thereto. The system of raiding the Mashonas appears to have become, to a great extent, a thing of the past even before the Mashona country was occupied by the Chartered Company; and Her Majesty's late Government, acquainted as they were with all the facts, entered into a Treaty of Peace and Amity with Lo Bengula, and maintained friendly relations with that Chief. Indeed, it may be said that the existence in past years of the system of raiding the Mashonas was the principal evidence which supported the doctrine that Lo Bengula ruled Mashonaland, and was, therefore, entitled to grant the land and minerals to the promoters of the Chartered Company. The Company were granted this Charter as a commercial and administrative Body, and not with a view to institute crusades against the Matabele, as seems to be suggested in the question.

SIR. E. ASHMEAD-BARTLETT

There is no such suggestion in the question. Am I to understand, from the answer given by the hon. Gentleman, that he does not deny the statement in the question that in the past few years 10,000 of these unfortunate Mashonas have been massacred?

MR. S. BUXTON

I do not deny that the Mashonas have been raided; but I say that these raids have for years come to an end, and that subsequent to them the late Government entered into this Treaty with Lo Bengula.