§ MR. J. RAMSAY MACDONALD (Leicester)To ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has been drawn to the fact that on arrival at St. Helena the Zulu prisoners wore in an emaciated condition and looked half-starved, and some of them were hardly able to walk; whether amongst these is the chief Tilonko, from whom a petition is lying upon the Table of this House setting forth that he was illegally condemned under an indemnity Act wider in scope than has ever been assented to by the Sovereign, and which is alleged to have been unjustly put into operation; and whether he proposes to take any action in the matter.
§ (Answered by Mr. Churchill.) It was necessary to deport these prisoners under the Colonial Prisoners Removal Act, and they therefore remain in the status of convicts; but it has always been the view of the Secretary of State that the fact of their deportation would justify their receiving while in St. Helena liberal treatment in regard to conditions of their 898 imprisonment, especially in the matter of dietary. He will at once call for a Report from the Governor of St. Helena on this subject, and will authorise him to make such modifications in the scale of dietary and general conditions as are possible consistently with the provisions of the law.