HC Deb 29 May 1906 vol 158 cc276-7
MR. CATHCART WASON

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the British Consular authorities in the Congo State have reported upon the case of John Alfred Brown, a coloured British subject of Freetown, sentenced, on July 19th, 1904, by the appeal court at Boma, to three years' † See (4) Debates, exxxv., 178. ‡ See (4) Debates, exxxv., 1276 et seq. imprisonment; if he is aware that Brown was arrested and seized in his own house by the executive official of the district, who figures as his prosecutor in the records; that an inquiry was held on the spot by the prosecutor subsequent to Brown's arrest and after his removal, and that the charges brought against him at his first trial at Stanleyville were entirely different to those which were held to justify his arrest; that he was kept in prison for four months without trial; that he was unprovided with counsel at Stanleyville, unable to call witnesses for his defence, and consequently unable to defend himself against the charges made; and whether he proposes to take any action in the matter.

SIR EDWARD GREY

Consul Nightingale reported this casein 1904, when he was Acting Consul at Boma. John Brown admitted having on several occasions beaten the natives under him, and I see no reason to complain of the punishment inflicted on him. I may add that the final sentence would have been heavier if the Court of Appeal had not taken the view that compulsion is necessary in order to induce the natives to work. I have not sufficient information to enable me to answer all the hon. Member's Questions in detail, but I have come to the conclusion that, with the exception of the delay in bringing Brown to trial, he was not on the whole unfairly treated. John Brown was released on March 5th, 1905. I ought to add that, in both this and the previous case, the accused were punished for having taken part in the ill-treatment of natives, which has been the ground of such general complaint in the Congo State. They are, therefore, in a quite different category from other matters which have formed the subject of representations on the part of His Majesty's Government.