§ Mr. JOHN WARDasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, if he could say whether any concessions of land or territory in the East African Protectorate had been made to Mr. E. S. Grogan; if so, what was the date and acreage of the concession, and whether the concession received the sanction of the then Secretary of State for the Colonies?
§ MASTER of ELIBANKBy an Agreement made the 9th July, 1904, between the Acting Commissioner of the East African Protectorate and Captain E. S. Grogan, the former agreed to grant to the latter a lease of some 64,000 acres of forest for a term of 50 years from the 1st of October, 1904. The Protectorate was under the administration of the Foreign Office at that time, but the agreement appears to have been made by the Acting Commissioner, without reference to the then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in pursuance of the powers vested in him under the East African Order-in-Council. [An HON. MEMBER: "Have not the concessions now lapsed?"] I am not aware. I will refer the question to my Noble Friend, Lord Crewe.