§ 15. Mr. E. BROWNasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies why a letter was written and signed by the Assistant, Under-Secretary of his Department to a relative of the late Mr. Lillies, one of the murdered officers in the Solomon Islands, to the effect that one of the natives arrested in connection with the outrages at Sinarango has stated that he had Keen asked on several occasions by a brother of a man executed at Tulagi to kill Government officials in Malaita at the first opportunity; and why the letter stated that this would be in accordance with native customs?
§ Mr. AMERYThe Colonial Office had been repeatedly pressed by the relative for fuller information as to the outrage, and the letter in question was one of a series of letters in that connection. The letter communicated the substance of a telegram from the Resident Commissioner of the Protectorate, and the allusion in that telegram to native custom was to the practice, not uncommon among primitive peoples, of seeking a life for a life.
§ 23. Lieut.-Colonel JAMESasked the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs the date on which the effects of the late Cadet Lillies arrived in this country from the Solomon Islands, and the date on which these effects were handed over to his next-of-kin.
§ Mr. AMERYThe effects were received in the Office of the Crown Agents for the Colonies on the 1Ith May, and were delivered to Mr. Chudleigh on the 30th May.
§ Lieut.-Colonel JAMESWas there any reason for this very long delay?