§ MR. ARMITAGE (Leeds, Central)To ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will state the strength of the preventive force in Southern Nigeria, its organisation, distribution, and duties.
(Answered by Colonel Seely.) The preventive service in Southern Nigeria is carried out partly by the water police, of whom there are twenty-one in the Eastern and fifteen in the Western Province. The only land frontier which at present requires special supervision is a portion of the boundary between Southern Nigeria and Dahomey, where a force of twenty-five men is employed. These can be supplemented, if required, from the ordinary police. The duty of the preventive force is to prevent smuggling.