QUESTION. OBSERVATIONS. (Hansard, 25 April 1879)

LORD ELLENBOROUGH
asked Her Majesty's Government, If they have ascertained the names of the firms that have supplied arms to the enemy opposed to Her Majesty's Forces at the Cape of Good Hope previous to the present war with the Zulus? The noble Lord said, they were now too well aware that the Zulus were provided with arms of precision and with ammunition suitable to those arms. He made that remark because, when reference was made to the subject recently in the other House, the right hon. and gallant Gentleman the Secretary of State for War received a telegraphic message from a firm which said that the arms that found their way into the hands of the Natives of South Africa, and of other places where we had been engaged in hostilities, were 1095 useless, or of such a description that they were likely to prove more dangerous to those who used them than to those against whom they were used. That, however, was not the case. Facts were better than theory. He alluded to what had been found to be the case when the distinguished 57th Regiment, in which he had the honour to serve, was in New Zealand, and again when that regiment recently went from Ceylon to the Cape of Good Hope. It was found that the Natives, both in New Zealand and at the Cape, were provided with arms which were supplied to them from this country, and that they were not useless weapons, but serviceable arms of precision. The same thing had been experienced in other parts of the world where we had found ourselves opposed to the Natives. There was no Act of Parliament enabling us to deal immediately with such cases. Yet, considering that the supply of arms and ammunition to the enemies of the country bad been going on during the lifetime of most of us, and that various Acts of Parliament had been passed for its suppression, it was high time to adopt more energetic measures for putting a stop to it. It might be well to consider whether this could best be done by the passing of an Act increasing the peril of those who acted so heartlessly as to make a profit out of what might be life or death to a number of their fellow-countrymen. It occurred to him that if the names of the firms who supplied those arms, or powder in a finished or unfinished state, were published, and the firms themselves thus held up to a public odium, that, aided by a free Press, would do as much as, or perhaps more than, any Act of Parliament. Good arms, though not of the very latest pattern, could be had in this country at so cheap a price that considerable profit was to be made by exporting them even to distant places. He begged to ask Her Majesty's Government the Question on the Notice Paper in his name.

§ EARL CADOGAN
presumed, from the remarks of the noble Lord in regard to the experience of the gallant 57th Regiment at the Cape—although his noble Friend's Question spoke of firms which had supplied arms to the enemy there previous to the present war with the Zulu Tribe—he meant to refer especially to the present war?

LORD ELLENBOROUGH
said, he did, immediately previous to the present war, and also to New Zealand and other Colonies, where our Forces had experienced the same thing in their wars with the Natives.

§ EARL CADOGAN
said, with regard to the sale of arms to the Kaffirs now fighting Her Majesty's troops, he had already had the honour, in answer to a Question put by another noble Lord (Viscount Sidmouth), to inform the House that measures had been taken to stop all further supply of arms to the Zulus. He stated, also, that communications had passed with the Portuguese Government, who had met Her Majesty's Government in the most friendly manner, and agreed to stop all traffic in arms with the Zulus, not only on the seaboard, but in all the inland territory subject to Portuguese jurisdiction. But, in reply to the inquiry of the noble Lord as to the names of firms which had supplied arms previous to the present war, he had to state that whatever communications had been made on the subject to Her Majesty's Government had been referred to the local authorities in South Africa, and such communications must necessarily be of a private nature. The Government had not, however, any information which would justify them in naming any firm or firms answering to the description referred to in the noble Lord's Question.