§ MR. BYLES (Salford, N.)To ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has been called to the recent questions in the Natal Parliament and to the replies of the Prime Minister, stating that the Natal Field Force had been employed in destroying 200 huts belonging to the Natives of the Mandhlakazi tribe, the people being dissatisfied with the chief appointed by the Governor; and, having regard to the circumstances in which Zululand was handed over to Natal, can he say what are the reasons which have led to the determined refusal of the tribe to recognise the chief referred to, and on account of which the inhabitants are being subjected to this enforced migration.
(Answered by Mr. Churchill.) The Secretary of State is aware of the matters referred to by the hon. Member. According to accounts from Natal, the action of the Natal Government was explained by the Prime Minister as being due to continued and persistent defiance of the Governor's order by a section of the tribe which had refused to recognise the chief appointed by the Governor in 1905, after a very careful inquiry as to the rights of those claiming the succession.