§ 26. Dr. Segalasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty how many ships and men of the Royal Navy were engaged on an anti-slavery patrol in the Red Sea during the years of the war; how many dhows engaged in this traffic were intercepted and with what results; and how far these naval operations have been curtailed since the war ended.
Mr. DugdaleAnti-slavery patrols were suspended during the war. They have not yet been reinstituted, but the standing instructions for the Commanders-in-Chief of the Mediterranean and East Indies Stations impose upon them a general responsibility for the prevention of slaving in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
§ Mr. HoggWould not a better place for anti-slavery patrols be the employment exchanges of this country?
§ Dr. SegalIs the Minister aware that this barbarous traffic, involving the lives of many thousands of His Majesty's African subjects, still persists to this day, and can he give an assurance that the Royal Navy will be allowed to fulfil its traditional rôle in an effort to suppress it?
Mr. DugdaleI must point out that the Royal Navy has a large number of rôles to fulfil, of which this is one, and it will certainly fulfil it as it does its other rôles.