§ SIR CHARLES DILKE (Gloucestershire, Forest of Dean)To ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he can state whether, on the transfer to the Colonial Office of the East Africa Protectorate, inquiry can be made as to the possibility of abolishing in the coast strip the legal status of slavery, in accordance with the policy hitherto general in the colonies and protectorates under the Colonial Office as well as in India.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Lyttelton.) Inquiry will be made, but it will be remembered that we are bound by an assurance which was given by Lord Kimberley, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in 1895, to the effect that the Law of Islam would be maintained.