HC Deb 03 August 1894 vol 28 c18
MR. J. W. LOWTHER (Cumberland, Penrith)

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the attention of the Foreign Office has been called to the circumstantial allegations of a grave character which appeared in The Times, of 30th July, relating to five distinct occasions upon which it is alleged that the German steamer Hermann von Wissman has recently conveyed cargoes of powder across Lake Nyassa into the immediate vicinity of British territory; whether the said gunpowder was so moved under the authorisation of the German administration as required by Article 9 of the Brussels Act; and whether Her Majesty's Government will call the attention of the German Government to the disastrous consequences which are likely to follow upon a continued importation of gunpowder into the regions infected by the Slave Trade?

THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir E.GREY,) Northumberland, Berwick

Information received from the Acting Commissioner confirms the fact that powder has been thus introduced into the British Protectorate, but the detailed statements referred to have not been officially corroborated. Her Majesty's Government have no knowledge as to the conditions under which powder has been moved within German territory. It is, however, necessary that measures should be taken in the Nyassa-Tanganyika district to prevent its importation and control its movement within British territory. A post has accordingly now been placed on the Songwe River which will, it is expected, facilitate the control. Meanwhile the German Governor, who has shown an earnest desire to co-operate in the repression of the Slave Trade, has been informed by the Acting Commissioner of the facts which have come to his knowledge as to the introduction into the Protectorate of powder landed from the steamer in German territory.