§ MR. SAMUEL EVANS (Glamorganshire, Mid)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether Mr. Albert Cartwright, the editor of the South African News, of Cape Town, has been sentenced in Cape Town to twelve months imprisonment upon a charge of seditious libel; whether he is aware that the offence with which he was charged was the republication in his newspaper of a letter which had already appeared in the Freeman's Journal and The Times newspaper in this country on the 15th and 16th January, 1901, respectively, and that three weeks had passed after the publication of the letter in the Freeman's Journal and in The Times before it was republished by Mr. Cartwright; and that other papers at the Cape also republished the letter and have not been proceeded against; and whether under the circumstances friendly representations can be made to the Cape Government with a view to commuting the sentence passed upon Mr. Cartwright.
§ MR. J. CHAMBERLAINI have not yet received a report of the trial, but assuming that the facts are as stated by the hon. Member, I do not feel justified in interfering with the discretion of the Cape Government in regard to this sentence, which was passed in a duly established court in a self-governing colony.