§ MR. W. F. LAWRENCE (Liverpool, Abercromby)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, having regard to the settlement between Her Majesty's Government and the 797 British East Africa Company primarily accepted by the latter on the 27th March, when the Government purposes to advise the Sultan of Zanzibar to take over the assets of the Company, as per letter of the Foreign Office, of February 21st, and resume the administration of the coast zone, and so relieve of the burden the shareholders of the Company, already seriously impoverished?
§ *SIR EDWARD GREYAs the payment of £50,000 by Her Majesty's Government is an integral part of the arrangement come to with the Company, we cannot proceed to carry out, other parts of the arrangement until the consent of Parliament has been obtained for the payment of this sum.
§ CAPTAIN BETHELL (York, W. R.)May I ask whether the expenses of administration have still to be borne by the Company, although the bargain is completed as between them and the Government?
§ *SIR EDWARD GREYThat is a very different question. I must ask for notice of it.
§ MR. R W. HANBURY (Preston)May I ask whether it is a fact that there is already in the Bank of England a sum of £200,000 belonging to the Sultanate, which is already available for carrying out the arrangement as between the Sultan and the Company?
§ *SIR EDWARD GREYYes, Sir, that is so; but the arrangement will stand or fall as a whole; and we cannot carry out one part without carrying out the whole; and we cannot carry out the whole without the authority of a Vote of this House.
§ SIR M. HICKS-BEACH (Bristol, W.)When do the Government propose, to take the Vote?
§ *SIR EDWARD GREYThat is hardly a question to be addressed tome: it must, I suppose, depend upon the condition of public business.