HC Deb 30 August 1895 vol 36 cc1239-40
* SIR CHARLES DILKE (Gloucester, Forest of Dean)

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, whether the importation of spirits into the Niger Coast Protectorate has increased by 25 per cent. in the last year for which figures are available, as compared with the previous year; whether the spirits in question consist mainly of German and Dutch gin and of German rum; whether there has in the same period been a decrease in the importation of cotton goods, hardware, and cutlery; and what is the cause of the enormous importation of percussion caps, amounting to 258,893,750 in one year, looking to the illegality under the Brussels Act of the trade in caps to the interior?

* THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Mr. GEORGE CURZON,) Lancashire, Southport

There was a considerable increase in the import of spirits into the Niger Coast Protectorate in the year 1893–4, but the right hon. Baronet will be pleased to hear that there is a still more considerable reduction in the year 1894–5,—namely, a reduction of 523,800 gallons of gin and 313,000 gallons of rum. The figures for 1893–4, as well as the countries from which the imports are derived, are given in the Consular Report 1618, recently presented to Parliament. In the same period, though there was a decrease in the number of packages, there was an increase in the value of hardware and cutlery imported, and an increase in both respects in the case of cotton goods. The British Commissioner, now in England, explains that owing to difficulties as to warehouses and to legal questions relating to the framing of the regulations, the rules concerning percussion caps did not come into operation until May, 1894; and that the large importation in the previous year was due to the fact that traders filled their stores in anticipation of the prohibition.

* SIR C. DILKE

asked whether the Government had expressed any opinion on the extraordinary violation of the Brussels Act and the importation of between 18,000 and 19,000 percussion guns?

* MR. CURZON

did not admit that there had been any extraordinary violation of the Brussels Act. Some time necessarily elapsed before the Act could come into operation, and traders took advantage of it to import these gun caps

MR. T. M. HEALY

asked whether, acting on the Belgian precedent, the Government could not manage to hang a few Germans? [Laughter.]