§ SIR CHARLES DILKE (Gloucester, Forest of Dean)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the shipment of trade spirit to the Niger on account of the Niger Company in 1898 was limited to the 900,000 bottles already named, or whether it was in fact in all 1,494,000 bottles, and whether in the first six weeks of the present year there was a shipment of 560,000 bottles, making in all considerably over three million bottles since the 1st January 1897; and whether, while the importation of gunpowder into the adjacent territories of the Niger Coast Protectorate is prohibited by Her Majesty's Government, a large importation of gunpowder into the territory of the Niger Company is taking place?
THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Mr. ST. JOHN BRODRICK,) Surrey, GuildfordI have made further inquiry into this matter, and find that—(1) The returns of trade spirits to all British possessions on the Gulf of Guinea are invariably made in gallons and not in bottles. The number of gallons shipped last year to the territory of the Niger Company was 178,180. (2) The Government cannot require weekly or monthly returns of commercial shipments of the company; but the latter have given an assurance, which can be verified later, that the shipments of the first six weeks of the present year have been one-third less than those of the first six weeks of last year. (3) The importation of gun powder into the adjacent territory of the Niger Coast Protectorate is not prohibited by Her Majesty's Government—trade gunpowder being chiefly used for weddings, funerals, and other social ceremonies. The Niger Company state that their importation of gunpowder is small compared with the great extent of their territory; that gunpowder is not sold in regions where it would fall into the hands of the slave-raiding Emirs, and that it is sold—or, when necessary, given away—to tribes in danger of being raided. No gunpowder has been shipped since October last.