§ Mr. SWANasked the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he is aware that Lieutenant Abdul Latif was, on 15th June, sentenced at Khartoum to one year's imprisonment and to deprivation of rank for expressing loyalty to King Fouad; and will he ask for a report on this subject?
Mr. HARMSWORTHThe hon. Member has been misinformed. The officer in question, who is a Dinka, was tried under Section 96 of the Sudan Penal Code for exciting disaffection to the Government established by law in the Sudan and was found guilty. I see no necessity for calling for a report on this subject.
§ Mr. SWANasked the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs why the acting Sirdar of the Sudan omitted, for the first; time, in his congratulatory message to King Fouad, on the occasion of the Bairam festival, to convey the congratulations of King Fouad's Sudanese subjects; and why it is stated in the "Sudanese Gazette," No. 39, of I5th May, 1922, p. 1558, that the Sudanese are British subjects?
Mr. HARMSWORTHI am not aware that the message in question was couched in an unusual form, and seeing that it emanated from the Acting Sirdar of the Egyptian Army speaking in his own name and in that of the officers and men of that army, its phrasing is perfectly cor-598W reet. As regards the latter part of the question, I would refer the hon. Member to the document which he mentions. The passage is, "For the purpose of this ordinance (the liquidation of Hungarian property in the Sudan), the term British national includes all subjects of the Sudan Government."