§ MR. H. LEWISI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the officials of the Royal Niger Company are compelled, as a condition of their appointment, to enter into a bond which precludes them, under a penalty of £1,000, from sending to England any news bearing upon the relations of the Company with native tribes or otherwise?
MR. CURZONI answered a similar question to this on May 4th of last year. The terms of the bond, which I then quoted, are that the officer will not without the consent of the Company in writing, communicate to the newspapers of Great Britain or other countries or to any outside person official or private any facts whether commercial, industrial, scientific, or political, in connection with 402 the Government or business of the Company, or the districts occupied by the Company, or with those he shall have visited or become acquainted with during his employment in the Company's service; and that he will not publish or distribute privately any pamphlet, book or other paper disclosing any such fact.