§ SIR MANCHERJEE BHOWNAGGREE (Bethnal Green, N.E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been drawn to the statement that the Governor of German South-West Africa has issued a very stringent edict prohibiting the extension of credit to natives; whether this edict and the introduction of the German Gewerbsteuer, or tax upon commerce, are specially directed against British Indian traders in the Gorman African possessions; whether he is aware that, in consequence of the imposition of the Gewerbsteuer, two Hindu firms have been recently driven to withdraw their operations from German South-West Africa; and whether he intends to move Her Majesty's Government to take immediate steps to represent to the German Government the injury inflicted upon a large number of British subjects engaged in trade in German possessions.
§ * THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Mr. BRODRICK,) Surrey, GuildfordNo information has reached Her Majesty's 68 Government on the subject. Inquiries will be made in Berlin as to whether anything is known of this edict.