§ MR. S. SMITH (Flintshire)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies whether 'his attention has been directed to a statement in The Standard and Diggers' News, a Johannesburg paper, which claims to represent the views of English settlers in the Transvaal, to the effect that 48 boys, of various colours, arrested for walking on the footpaths, had been sentenced to receive 10 lashes each for so doing; that the punishment was inflicted with a cat consisting of an ordinary two-foot stick with nine tails of stout twine, each with some knots and some two feet in length, the cat being previously dipped in a bucket of salt and water; and that 684 a pannikin of salt and water was thrown over each boy at the end; and whether the Government will take the needful steps to secure fair treatment of the black population in the adjacent British territory?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Mr. S. BUXTON, Tower Hamlets, Poplar)I have seen the statement referred to in The Standard and Diggers' News. I am not aware, however, that that paper especially represents the views of British settlers in the Transvaal. There is, so far as I know, no similar law with regard to the flogging of natives in any of the British Possessions adjacent to the South African Republic, and I am not aware that any special steps are needed to secure fair treatment to the black population in these territories.