§ MR. DAVITTI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he has observed that, in connection with the recent deportation of Bai Bureh and other native chiefs to Accra, Sir David Chalmers, Her Majesty's Special Commissioner to Sierra Leone, has reported that the but tax, together with the measures used for its enforcement, were the moving causes of the insurrection; and that repugnance to the tax was much aggravated by the methods by which it was endeavoured to be brought into operation, not merely by the acts of the native policemen, but in the whole scheme adopted by the Colonial authorities; and if, in view of this strong expression of opinion by Her Majesty's Commissioner, lenient treatment will be accorded to the deported native chiefs.
§ MR. J. CHAMBERLAINThe Report of the Royal Commissioner contains the statements referred to, but it will be seen from my despatch to the Acting-Governor that I am unable to fully endorse all these statements. Independently, however, of this, I am disposed to secure the most lenient treatment to all the chiefs concerned, so far as is consistent with the peace and security of the colony, and I propose to instruct Sir F. Cardew to reconsider their cases on his return, and, if he can possibly do so without danger to the colony, to allow them after a short interval to return to their districts.
§ MR. DAVITTI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the deportation of Bai Bureh from Sierra 16 Leone to Accra is the result of a trial before a jury in Freetown, or the act of the Governor of the colony; does the deportation involve imprisonment in Accra; and if he can say whether Bai Burehwas a peaceable chief, and well-disposed towards the Government of the colony before the imposition of the but tax.
§ MR. J. CHAMBERLAINBai Bureh has been deported by the order of the Governor under an Ordinance. He will be detained under surveillance at Accra as a political prisoner. Bai Bureh has always been a turbulent chief—constantly engaged in native wars and slave-raiding expeditions; he has been in collision with the Government of Sierra Leone when it intervened to put a stop to these wars, and again when he took part in raiding French territory. On that occasion an unsuccessful attempt was made to arrest him, and he was eventually compelled to surrender fifty guns. On the other hand, he had previously, in 1892, rendered some assistance to the Government in an expedition undertaken by them. Except on that one occasion, he cannot be said to have been well-disposed to the Government.