HC Deb 22 October 1908 vol 194 cc1349-50
MR. J. M. ROBERTSON

I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has been directed to proceedings in the St. Albans Divisional Sessions on the 10th instant, when the wife of the Chief Justice of Southern Nigeria was convicted of cruelly beating one of four native girls in her employ, who had been entrusted to the Chief Justice as liberated slaves, to be under his guardianship until they are twenty-one years of age, the girl flogged being only about thirteen years old, and when both he and the defendant asserted their right to administer this and severer punishment; whether the conditions under which these wards were entrusted to the Chief Justice authorise, either in England or in Southern Nigeria, the treatment condemned in a British Court of law, the right to continuance of which was asserted both by the legal guardian of the child and by the defendant; and, if so, whether His Majesty's Government will take steps to procure withdrawal of these wards from the guardianship of the Chief Justice of Southern Nigeria, and also such modifications of existing regulations as will protect other liberated slaves from similar treatment in West Africa and elsewhere in British Dominions.

COLONEL SEELY

The wife of the Chief Justice of Southern Nigeria was convicted of a common assault upon one of these native girls, and I must say at once that, although the magistrates were able to allow the existence of certain extenuating circumstances, the Secretary of State deeply regrets that the name of an important judicial officer should be connected with a case of such a painful description. The whole circumstances of the case are under the consideration of the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State is also dealing with the subject matter of the second paragraph of my hon. friend's Question, and my hon. friend may rest assured that the conditions (upon which some communication with the Gold Coast may be necessary) will not be allowed to continue if they disclose any right to inflict upon a ward such treatment as that described in the first part of the Question. The Secretary of State is also taking steps to secure that these girls shall be sent back to the Colony and that their settlement there shall be arranged under the supervision of the Governor or some other suitable authority.