§ MR. DAVITTI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies, whether the brothers Ansah, who were 1441 arrested and handcuffed on the occasion of the recent British occupation of Kumassi on some charges of forgery and embezzlement, were tried at Cape Coast Castle during last month and acquitted; by whom were these charges made, and by what authority were the prosecutions instituted; and whether, in view of the established innocence of these Native princes, some reparation will be made to them by the Colonial Office?
§ MR. J. CHAMBERLAINThe brothers Ansah were tried in the Supreme Court of the Gold Coast at Cape Coast last month. They were acquitted by the Court of the charge of forgery, and the Attorney General has not proceeded with the remainder of the charges. At Kumassi, on January 20, the second war chief, on behalf of the nation, demanded the punishment of the Ansahs for being the cause of the Ashanti difficulties, and the Governor of the Gold Coast replied that they would be prosecuted at Cape Coast. They were accused, on information received from two of the Ashanti chiefs who accompanied them to England, of forging their credentials, and they have admitted that the document was written at Cape Coast some months after they left Kumassi, was not signed by the King, and was sealed in London with a seal made there after their arrival. Under these circumstances there is no ground for making any reparation to them. The prosecution was instituted by the Gold Coast Government.