§ MR. CATHCART WASON (Orkney and Shetland)I beg to ask the Undersecretary of State for the Colonies if he is aware of the feeling held in East Africa that the great game preserves established there by the Foreign Office are inimical to settlement, and that any money spent in game preservation or on soldiers employed as gamekeepers would be much better spent in developing the great agricultural resources of the country; and whether he proposes to take any action in the matter.
§ MR. CHURCHILLI assume that the hon. Member's Question has reference to the game preserve in the neighbourhood of the Uganda Railway, for the northern reserve is so distant from the settled areas of the Protectorate as to be scarcely in question. I am aware that some of the settlers are opposed to the preservation of the great game; but others again are in favour of it, and it must be remembered 1109 that the Protectorate derives considerable benefit from the game both directly in the shape of fees for licences and customs dues on articles imported by shooting parties and indirectly through the money brought into the country by those shooting parties. The Secretary of State has, however, no objection to taking the opinion of the Governor on the question.
§ MR. CHURCHILLI am not aware that they are, but certainly the proceeds for the game licences more than cover any expenses incurred.