§ MR. HERBERT SAMUEL (Yorkshire, Cleveland)To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that the table in the new Statistical Abstract for the British Empire, which purports to show the area and population of each part of the Empire, is incomplete, since it includes in its totals particulars of none of the African Protectorates, except that attached to the Gold Coast Colony, and since no mention is made, either in text or footnote, of Rhodesia, or of the Protectorates of British East Africa, Zanzibar, Uganda, British Central Africa, Somaliland, Northern Nigeria, and Southern Nigeria, or of British North Borneo and Sarawak; and whether, in future numbers of the Abstract, he will include in this or a supplemental table particulars, so far as ascertainable, of these territories.
(Answered by Mr. Gerald Balfour.) The official statistics relating to the population 558 and area of the Protectorates were too imperfect to admit of inclusion in the first number of the Abstract. There is a note on page 7 with regard to the treatment of protectorate trade. How far the desired particulars can be included in future numbers of the Abstract must depend on the information available at the time of preparation.