EARL DE LA WARErose to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 153 Whether the recent Proclamation of Admiral Hewett at Suakin could be laid upon the Table of the House? It had been stated, he said, in the public Press and remained uncontradicted, that Admiral Hewett, who was recently invested with supreme authority—he did not know by whom—as Civil and Military Governor of Suakin, and was acting in the name of the British Government, had issused a Proclamation which ran thus—
I, the English Governor General, Civil and Military, of Suakin, make known that whosever will bring in the rebel Osman, the murderer, who has by his lies caused the blood of the tribes to be spilt at El Teb and Tamanieb, alive or dead, shall receive 5,000 dollars reward.It was further stated that the Proclamation had been affixed to the walls of Suakin, and circulated throughout the country. It had been also commented upon by the French Press. He trusted Her Majesty's Government would have no objection to laying a Copy of the Proclamation, as issued by Admiral Hewett, upon the Table of the House. It seemed to him that a Proclamation such as that to which he had referred, and which, was now assumed to be correct, would be unworthy, to say the least, of any civilized country, and that it would be little short of offering a reward for murder to bring alive or dead, as it said, the leader of brave and gallant men who had been fighting for their country, their families, and their Homes against these who did not really know what they were fighting for, but who now, unhappily, would leave behind them thousands of Homes with only widows and orphans.
§ VISCOUNT BURY, who had on the Paper a Notice to inquire Whether a statement which appeared in a morning paper of the 17th of March to the effect that a reward had been offered for Osman Digna, alive or dead, was correct? said, as his Question was similar in substance to that which had been asked, he would content himself with the answer that would be given to his noble Friend.
§ EARL GRANVILLEMy Lords, I have to say that Her Majesty's Government had received no official information of the Proclamation in question yesterday morning; but, on account of the reports in the papers, Her Majesty's 154 Government, through the First Lord of the Admiralty, sent an inquiring telegram to Admiral Hewett. Information has been received from Admiral Hewett. The noble Earl praised Osman Digna. The Admiral considers him to be a murderer, who had killed two of his messengers. The Proclamation was issued after consultation with the Headmen and the Sheikhs of the friendly tribes. We have received the text of the Proclamation; it contains the offer of the reward alluded to by the noble Viscount. Her Majesty's Government have telegraphed that they cannot approve it, and that the offer must be withdrawn at once in the manner which seems to these on the spot to be most judicious.