§ SIR JOHN KENNAWAY (Devonshire, Honiton)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, whether-he will state what progress has been made in carrying out on the mainland of the East Coast Protectorate of Africa, the abolition of slavery, since the assurance given in the speech of the First Lord of the Treasury on June 24th, 1897, of the earnest desire of the Government to take steps in this direction; whether, seeing that in the instructions given to Colonel Sadler, on appointment as Commissioner in the Uganda Protectorate, it is laid down that the task of educating the natives to a degree enabling them to take part in the European administration of the Protectorate must devolve upon the missions established in the country, it is intended to propose a special grant to societies carrying out educational work in the Protectorate.
§ * LORD CRANBORNEThe latest reports from our officers in the mainland dominions of the Sultan of Zanzibar show that gradual progress is being made in the diminution of the number of slaves. There are now little more than 15,000 slaves on the mainland. The institution of slavery is moribund; in a very large number of cases the status of slavery is already nominal, and in fifteen years we have every expectation that it will have 544 ceased to exist. It is not at present pro-posed to give any special grant to educational societies in the Uganda Protectorate, but His Majesty's Commissioner will, as instructed, discuss the question of education with the missions, with an earnest desire to relieve them, so far as is consistent with the general policy of His Majesty's Government in such matters, from all restrictions which can hamper their good work.