*SIR CHARLES DILKEI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether in consequence of the recent purchase by the French Government of telegraph cables on the West Coast of Africa, the property of the West Africa Telegraph Company, the lines previously worked by that company will be so deviated as to avoid Bathurst and Accra, with which British possessions these lines are at present in connection.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Mr. J. CHAMBERLAIN, Birmingham, W.)The purchase by the French Government of the cables referred to by the right hon. Member has not yet been completed, but it has been arranged that the cables which are to be transferred to the French Government will be deviated so as not to touch at Bathurst and Accra. Those places will continue to be telegraphically connected with this country by other lines which are in British hands.