§ MR. JAMES BRYCE () Aberdeen, S.I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India—(1) whether the attention of the India Office has been called to the desirability of preventing the extinction of the African wild elephant in Somali-land by the establishment of a reserve or sanctuary for those animals within the British Somaliland Protectorate; (2) whether he has received a memorial on the subject from Mr. Edward N. Buxton, who lately visited Somaliland and examined the question; and (3) whether it is intended to take steps for the prevention of the slaughter of elephants in the districts indicated, having regard to the probability that in default of such steps the wild elephants now to be found in the Somaliland Protectorate will very soon be either driven out or extirpated?
§ *LORD GEORGE HAMILTONThe answer to the right hon. Member's first and second Questions is in the affirmative. I have invited an expression of opinion of the Government of Bombay as to any modifications that may be required in the rules in order to prevent the extermination of wild elephants; and upon the receipt of their reply I shall be glad to consider what steps it may be advisable and possible to take to secure this object.