§ Mr. Manderasked the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs whether, in view of the fact that Sir Hercules Robinson, with the approval of Lord Derby, the then Secretary of State for the Colonies, placed it on record that the position of His Majesty's Government in Bechuanaland did not amount to sovereignty, this position still obtains; and, if any change has taken place, under what instrument has it been accomplished?
Mr. M. MacDonaldI understand that the view expressed in the correspondence of 1885 to which the hon. Member refers related to the territory afterwards known as British Bechuanaland; and it was based upon the fact that the territory had not then been annexed. The territory in question was subsequently annexed by a Proclamation of the then High Commissioner dated September, 1885, and is now part of the Cape Province of the Union of South Africa.