§ MR. LAWRENCE (Liverpool, Abercromby)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether it has been brought to his notice that a result of the Notification issued by the British Government to the Powers on the 22ud of June, 1892, to the effect that the Sultan of Zanzibar had withdrawn the reserves under which, on the advice of Great Britain and Germany, he originally gave his adhesion to the Berlin Act, has been to prevent the further collection of the Tariff' Duties on produce reaching the coast from countries in the interior and laying outside the limits of the British Protectorate of Zanzibar; whether free transit may now be claimed through the Sultan's dominions for goods imported at the coast if declared as in transit for countries in the interior, thus passing free of payment of the 5 per cent. Import Duty at time of landing to which all goods landed are liable under the Commercial Treaties irrespective of their ultimate destination; whether the above charges, if such have taken place, are consequent upon and are authorised by the Berlin 1541 Act; and whether the Imperial British East Africa Company, administering the coast under concession from the Sultan of Zanzibar, have protested against the loss of revenue so caused to them, and asked Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to intervene in the manner specified in the Charter; and, if so, what answer has been given?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir E. GREY, Northumberland, Berwick)No such change as is indicated resulted directly from the notification of the adhesion of the Sultan to the free zone system of the Act of Berlin, as at the time of adhesion the East Africa Company administered the coast and the interior and had only spoken of possible retirement from Uganda. The free transit provisions of the Act have been gradually brought into effect by the successive spontaneous acts of the Company in withdrawing from the districts of the interior which it had undertaken to administer. Free transit to the districts abandoned by it may now be claimed under the Berlin Act. The Company has protested, and its protest, has been noted, but in the present position of the question the Secretary of State has not intervened.