HC Deb 24 April 1923 vol 163 cc293-4W
Mr. C. WILSON

asked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will give the names of those Colonies and Protectorates in which the Secretary of State considers the conditions to be such that their adherence to the 1921 Convention for the suppression of the traffic in women and children is either unnecessary or impracticable; and in what respect the conditions in these Colonies and Protectorates differ from the conditions in such Colonies and Protectorates as have adhered?

Mr. ORMSBY-GORE

It has been decided that adherence to the Convention is unnecessary and impracticable in the ease of Nigeria, Ashanti, the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, the Protectorate, but not the Colony, of Sierra Leone, and the Uganda Protectorate. The reasons are, that in the conditions prevailing locally the state of things which the Convention contemplates does not exist. The situation will be carefully watched, and if there is reason to believe that the evils, which the Convention is designed to obviate, are likely to spring up locally, the necessary legislation will be adopted.