§ MR. MOLTENO (Dumfriesshire)I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has been drawn to the address of the Chief Justice of the Orange River Colony to the conference of magistrates assembled at Bloemfontein late in September, in which address the Chief Justice took occasion publicly to repudiate the allegations, to which the widest publicity had been given in the Press in this country, that juries in the Orange River Colony were biassed by racial prejudice, and particularly to his declaration that the statements on this subject were absolutely false from beginning to end, and that it was a gross libel on the jurymen of the Colony, who never in a single case in his experience or in the experience of Mr. Justice Fawkes or Mr. Justice Ward allowed nationality to interfere with their duty; and what action he proposes to take.
§ MR. CHURCHILLI have seen the address of the Chief Justice of the Orange River Colony as reported in the Johannesburg Star of 25th September to which the lion. Member draws attention. No action on the part of the Secretary of State seems to be called for in the present circumstances by anonymous publication in newspapers or comment thereupon, but Lord Elgin has noted with satisfaction the testimony borne by the Bench to the impartiality and decorum of the jurymen of the Orange River Colony.