§ 9. Mr. Barstowasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether in view of the Ministry of Information pamphlet "The First to be Freed," recording that slavery was practised by the Italian Government in their Colony of Somalia, and the neglect of sanitation, public health, water supply, and education in Eritrea and Somalia, the imprisonment for years without trial and under bad conditions of persons guilty of no crime known to the laws of civilised countries, he will assure the House that His Majesty's Government is opposed to the return of the colonies to Italy, and that their declaration that the Italian Empire in Africa is irrevocably lost will be strictly adhered to.