§ MR. PIRIETo ask the Secretary of State for War whether his attention has been directed to a Parliamentary Paper, recently issued at Cape Town, giving the names of 113 prisoners sentenced by military courts in Cape Colony; whether the Commission sent out by His Majesty's Government has recommended their immediate release; and, if so, whether they have yet been released; whether he is aware that all these prisoners were under sixteen years of age, and British subjects, and that three of them were girls; and will he state what were the offences of the three girls, and to what terms of imprisonment were they sentenced.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Brodrick.) I have seen this Parliamentary Paper, but I am not aware of the action taken by the Cape Government. I have no information as to the ages of the prisoners in the Return. Two women are included, one of whom was given a year's imprisonment with hard labour for supplying liquor without a permit, and 1068 another, a coloured woman, was given the same sentence (six months of which were remitted) for being in possession of brandy. As to a person included in the list under the name of Sarah, who is apparently a Kaffir, it is not known whether the name in this case represents a male or female.