§ MR. THOMAS BAYLEYI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign 708 Affairs whether His Majesty's Government has sanctioned, or proposes to sanction, the suggestion of Sir Lloyd Mathews, in his memorandum of 19th January, 1901, printed in Parliamentary Paper, Africa, No. 4 (1901), for procuring native labour for Zanzibar and Pemba from the British East Africa and Uganda Protectorates on contracts for three years or longer, to be entrusted to Zanzibar merchants or a company empowered to draft such labour in gangs to wherever it may be required, and solely responsible for the wages and upkeep incident to it; and whether His Majesty's Government has received information as to the deportation of slaves from Pemba to Muscat since the Anti-Slavery Decree of the Sultan of Zanzibar; and, if so, whether any, or what, steps have been taken to prevent such deportation during the past three years by the action of His Majesty's warships in watching the coast.
§ *THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Viscount CRANBORNE,) RochesterHis Majesty's Government have not sanctioned, and do not, as at present advised, propose to sanction, the suggestion in question. All the information received by His Majesty's Government regarding the deportation of slaves from Pemba has been laid before the House in slave trade papers, which also contain reports from naval officers as to the operations of His Majesty's ships.