§ MR. EMMOTTI beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether any reply has been made to the request of the Government of the Congo Free State, reported in the third paragraph of page 3 of the White-book, Africa No. 1 (1904), for the facts in reference to cases of ill-treatment of natives, which had then been reported in the despatches of His Majestys Consular Agents; and, if so, whether a copy of the reply will be laid upon the Table.
§ EARL PERCYHis Majesty's Minister at Brussels has been instructed to inform the Congo Government that His Majesty's Government see no object in communicating the reports mentioned in the Question, which are now of ancient date, and although founded on apparently reliable testimony, were not, like the recent Report by Mr. Casement, the result of personal inquiry by His Majesty's Consular Officers.