§ MR. HENRY J. WILSON (Yorkshire, W.R., Holmfirth)To ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will state what is approximately the area of the four African Protectorates referred to in Command Paper 1635, Africa, No. 9, 1903, and the approximate populations, distinguishing between Natives and Europeans.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Chamberlain): The approximate areas and populations are:—East Africa Protectorate: area 350,000 square miles; population, 4,000,000, including 5,000 Asiatics and 450 Europeans and Eurasians. Uganda Protectorate: area 80,000 square miles; population, Natives, under 4,000,000; Europeans about 300. British Central Africa: area 42,217 square miles; population Native. This has been variously estimated at figures ranging from 3,000,000 to 850,000. A very recent Return estimates it at 736,724. Europeans 538. Somaliland: area 68,000 square miles; population 500,000, chiefly nomadic. The estimates of the Native population must, in the absence of anything approaching a census, be received as in the main conjectural.