HC Deb 23 July 1923 vol 167 cc20-1
28. Mr. WALLHEAD

asked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware that slave-holding is still practised in the mandatory territories of South-West Africa, Tanganyika, and Zanzibar; what is the number of slaves in each territory, respectively; and what steps it is proposed to take to put an end to this practice?

Mr. ORMSBY-GORE

So far as South Africa is concerned, I would refer the hon. Member to the answer which was given to the hon. Member for Derby on the 20th of June. In Tanganyika Territory, by an Ordinance passed in June of last year, no person may be detained against his will in service as a slave. I am not aware that slave holding is still practised in Zanzibar.

60. Mr. C. ROBERTS

asked the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is aware that, during the recent sitting of the Council of the League of Nations, the reply of the French Government was received to the request of the Secretariat for information upon slavery; that this reply was of the most adequate kind, giving to the Council of the League full and convincing details of widespread slave-owning and extensive slave-trading; that the Council, impressed with these disclosures, gave instructions for the whole of the documents to be circulated to the League of Nations; and whether, seeing that the relationships of the French Government to the Abyssinian Government and the obligations of the French Government under the Anti-Slavery Convention are precisely the same as those of the British Government, His Majesty's Government will consider what steps can be taken to associate this country with the Government of France in responding readily and fully to the request of the League of Nations?

The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Mr. Ronald McNeill)

I have nothing to add to the reply which I gave to my Noble Friend the Member for South Nottingham (Lord H. Cavendish-Bentinck) on 19th July.

Mr. ROBERTS

Could the hon. Gentleman suggest any way by which the strange reluctance of the Foregn Office to give this information can be overcome?

Mr. McNEILL

That does not arise out of the question.