§ SIR H. COTTONI beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the attention of His Majesty's Government has been called to the case of Sekgoma, a native of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, who was arrested at Kimberley and detained as a prisoner without any charge being laid against him, whose application that he may be brought to trial and afforded an opportunity of defending himself has been refused, and concerning whom it is alleged that the High Commissioner for South Africa declined to give reasons for his detention; and whether His Majesty's Government will call for a Report on the subject.
§ COLONEL SEELYYes, Sir, the case is well-known to the Secretary of State—Sekgoma, who claimed to be chief of the Batawana tribe, and who had for a considerable time acted in that capacity was removed from that position after an exhaustive inquiry on the spot by the Resident Commissioner of the Bechuanaland Protectorate in 1906. The Resident Commissioner found that Sekgoma was not entitled to the succession and that the majority of the tribe accepted the other claimant, Mathibi, as their lawful chief. The tribe was deeply divided on the question of the succession, and in the opinion of the Commissioner which was accepted by Lord Selborne and the Secretary of State, it was necessary in order to avoid the likelihood of bloodshed and tribal war to prevent Sekgoma's return. Sekgoma has, therefore, been detained in a different part of the Protectorate under the authority of a High Commissioner's Proclamation of December, 1906, which recited the reasons given above for the action taken